Tuesday, April 16

Author: Beena Choksi

Beena is associated with Sahyog, a community-based organization in Mumbai that has faith in non-formal and informal educational endeavours to bring about social change. When she is not thinking about learning, libraries and the like, she is thinking chocolates.
<i>Summer Camp </i><strong>(HE)ART</strong>
21Jun By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 13 – June 2020

Summer Camp (HE)ART

Come April-May, almost every NGO that works with children, has some sort of a recreational camp planned to mark the end of the academic year and the start of the summer vacation. Those who are not heading for their village after schools close are all agog. At Sahyog, the summer camp has become an annual feature of its Roshan library programme; children gather for 2-3 days to learn, play, express, create, form and strengthen friendships, and feel valued. The sudden announcement of the lockdown knocked the camp off our calendar. It receded from our minds as we began to respond to the survival challenges that scores of families in the community were facing. Besides, with physical distancing strictly enforced, the question was, how is a camp even feasible? Three weeks into the lockdown, after...
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<i>On The</i> <strong>Same Page</strong>
30Jan By Beena Choksi1 Comment
Chiaroscuro, Issue 12 – February 2020

On The Same Page

From the Margins Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. In a world beset with inequities, it’s not surprising that marginalised people are in the majority. Over the centuries, libraries have made available to marginalised populations what has been consistently denied to them: access, voice, and visibility. Together they lay the foundation for their empowerment. Here are some glimpses from across the world of what place libraries have in th...
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<i>On the Same </i><strong>Page</strong>
26Oct By Beena Choksi1 Comment
Chiaroscuro, Issue 11 – October 2019

On the Same Page

An Unfettered Right Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love.  Every day, over the last couple of months, I have been dipping into a love-letter. A Velocity of Being edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick is a captivating compilation of 121 letters to inspire “young readers” but as any reader knows, age has nothing to do with being in love with books. The letters are warm, witty, wondrous, and will stoke the embers of reading for those wh...
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<i>On the Same </i><strong>Page</strong>
2Apr By Beena Choksi5 Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 9 – April 2019

On the Same Page

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love.   During my first years of schooling, my idea of what libraries looked like was as constant as the four-walled spaces that housed them. I knew where to go and be sure that I would find them in the same place, day after day, week after week.  Between Mondays and Fridays it was the 3-room library in my school and on weekends it was the neighbour’s curiously charming home li...
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<i>On The Same </i><strong>Page</strong>
19Oct By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Issue 7 – October 2018

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. Shape-shifting Libraries 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico quarter final. An audacious “Hand of God” goal scored by legendary Diego Maradona against England, makes football history. For the uninitiated—the goal that Maradona scored against the formidable English team remains controversial; some saw it as divine intervention while others thought of it as plain foul play. The goal was scored by sleight of hand...
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<i>On The Same</i> Page
26Apr By Beena Choksi2 Comments
Issue 5 – April 2018

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination. On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. Book-journeys I recall a friend who wasn’t much of a reader being put in a quandary by a college application essay question: ‘If you had to take no more than 3 books with you to live for the rest of your life on an uninhabited island, which would you choose?’ Although posed as a hypothetical question, it resonates strongly with any book lover who knows that journeys, brief or lengthy, casual or purpose...
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On The Same <i>Page</i>
12Jan By Beena Choksi1 Comment
Alt Shift, Issue 4 – January 2018

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. Picturing the journey: Print to digital Long before research was undertaken to establish the significant role pictorial representations play in developing literacy, language, and a host of cognitive skills in young children, picture books occupied a distinct place in the world of children’s publishing.   So much so that since 1937 picture books became award-worthy starting with the Cald...
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On The Same Page
10Sep By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 3 - September 2017

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. "And I say to myself, 'What a wonderful world!'" From the 1990s, school classrooms across the world started to become ethnically and culturally more diverse. As populations migrated from their home countries—by choice or compulsion—immigrant cultures and languages permeated classrooms. The need to understand and be understood by classmates is daunting for a child who speaks a different tongue. How doe...
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Preface
16Jun By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Axis, Issue 2 - June 2017, Issues

Preface

There are as many libraries as there are communities to imagine them; each library telling a different story of how it came into being. It may not be surprising for a community’s history and memories to be couched in “before the library“ and “after the library” terms. For, libraries, in celebrating curiosity, freedom of thought, and multiple modes of expression, hold the power to transform communities deeply, irrevocably.   Built on the bedrock of books, libraries serve as intellectually stimulating spaces, safe havens—and in more recent times creative hubs—for children and adults alike. The ever-expanding vision of libraries encompasses book discussions, poetry readings, film screenings, drama workshops, and art and craft activities. Library-goers channel their experience of ne...
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On The Same Page
30May By Beena ChoksiNo Comments
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

On The Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love.   Las Misiones Pedagógicas Imagine borrowing a book from a library and finding card in it, which reads: When you finish your work wash your hands and take the book you have requested. Find a quiet spot and read. You’ll always remember these moments with pleasure. Then put the book away carefully until you can continue reading. Make sure that you when you return the book after reading it, it is as ...
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On the Same Page
22Jan By Beena Choksi1 Comment
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 1 - March 2017

On the Same Page

Being able to criss-cross the globe on the strength of the Internet has made it possible to engage with creative ideas, conversations, and experiences which otherwise would be beyond our reach—and at times, even beyond our imagination.  On The Same Page will bring to the reader of Torchlight, a combination of textual-audio-visual curated content, about and around libraries and bookish love. Throughout history, libraries have been venerated—but also destroyed. If on the one hand these repositories of knowledge and wisdom have freed the shackles of the mind, on the other hand they have been feared for the very same reason. From ancient to modern times, about a dozen grand libraries spanning at least 3 continents, have been destroyed by human intent and action. We know nothing, though, ...
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