Spotlight

<strong>A Writing Challenge</strong><i> of Pandemic Proportions</i>
Issue 13 – June 2020, Spotlight

A Writing Challenge of Pandemic Proportions

Most days, it is difficult to remember why one writes. In the times of this pandemic, one can expand the question to ask, why is it that one does anything at all? At the beginning of the lockdown, a time I remember as being one of overwhelming vertigo, I tentatively proposed on my Facebook page the formation of a lockdown writing community, one that would respond to a prompt sent out in the morning by writing 500 words to be shared by end of the day. Even though, in hindsight I could speak of the many ways in which this was a well thought out plan following in the hallowed footsteps of Shakespeare, Marcus Aurelius, Camus and such, it really wasn’t. It may have been summarily informed by the “Top ten writing habits” of successful novelists and such, but even that is a stretch. Truth be told...
<i>Lockdown</i> <strong>Conversation</strong>
Issue 13 – June 2020, Spotlight

Lockdown Conversation

With Nayan Mehrotra and Rituparna Neog Moderated by Samina Mishra  For more information on Nayan’s work, check out Youtube channel For more information on Rituparna’s work, check out the Youtube channel and Facebook page  
<strong>Drawing the Lockdown </strong>-<i> a (longish) graphic exploration </i>
Issue 13 – June 2020, Spotlight

Drawing the Lockdown - a (longish) graphic exploration

The day after the first lockdown was announced in India, a flurry of messages started coming in from people known and less known. Messages of concern, gentleness, empathy. It felt urgent to capture this- how amidst the uncertainty and fear, the overriding instinct was to reach towards each other in tenderness. It felt as if we were writing our history in every moment we leaned across walls, windows, time-space to ask “how are you?”. (March 25th 2020) I am an illustrator and theatre practitioner currently based in Delhi, and living alone. When the first twenty five days of isolation were announced, my immediate strongest instinct was to draw what I was feeling. The strangeness of it. The unstable sense of reality. (March 28th 2020- the first in the Crow series) I began one of the most ...
<i>Story as </i>“<strong>a weapon for survival</strong>”
Issue 12 – February 2020, Spotlight

Story as a weapon for survival

Image courtesy: www.kobo.com Matilda, the protagonist and narrator of Lloyd Jones’ novel Mister Pip[i]  confides to the reader at the conclusion of the story, “Pip was my story, even if I was once a girl and my face black as the shining night”. She is referring to Pip, the hero of Charles Dickens’ classic, Great Expectations and also to the context when she first heard the story as a 13 year old pupil in a village school in a remote Pacific island off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the 1990s. The island which forms the historical backdrop of the fictional story of Mister Pip is torn apart by a brutal civil war and is under siege from the ruthless Government forces of the nearby mainland following a dispute over mining rights. There is a certain irony that the children of the island of ...
<strong>The Open Library</strong> <i>at Centre for Learning</i>
Issue 12 – February 2020, Spotlight

The Open Library at Centre for Learning

From the start, the library at Centre for Learning was visualised as a space of freedom, autonomy, relationship and responsibility. This approach is in harmony with the overall philosophy of the school but it seemed important to demonstrate this in multiple ways through the library space. The library is a space where ownership is equally shared by the students, the library educators and the teachers. Once that is clearly internalised, the consequent action is effortless and happens seamlessly. But channels of communication, listening, and relating play a crucial role in sustaining this spirit of an open library. An important experience for every child is the library project. This is usually in the last term which ensures there has been ongoing immersion in reading and library practices o...
<i>On Making an Emotional Map of </i><strong>Our Library</strong>
Issue 12 – February 2020, Spotlight

On Making an Emotional Map of Our Library

Recently a group of us- Tibetan Librarians from across India- wanted to explore how the library looks and feels to our students, using art as the medium. The idea was to make collaborative images that represented their emotions towards the school library space, and to reading there. Presented below are some pictures of the emotional maps from different groups of students who came together to do this activity, in response to the same common instructions. This is a detail from the map of the junior school library drawn by class VI and V students of TCV (Tibetan Children's Village) Bylakuppe,  where I am the Junior school librarian. I gave them the instructions and observed through the activity that the children's minds were full of imagination.     This piece was created b...
<i>Reframing the </i><strong>Narrative of Illiteracy</strong>
Issue 11 – October 2019, Spotlight

Reframing the Narrative of Illiteracy

With thanks to Dr Manjiri Nimbkar and Mr Kishore Darak for first bringing this text to my notice and their comments on the discrepancies between the original text and its adaptation for the Balbharati text book. Introduction Illustration: Datta Ahiwale Throughout the years, the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Research — popularly known as Balbharati – has made efforts to present a range of social and personal diversity in its books. In its 1994 edition of the Marathi textbook for standard six, it included a chapter from Taral Antaral, the autobiography of Shankarrao Kharat (1921-2001), one of the earliest and most distinguished of Dalit writers and academics in Maharashtra. A law graduate, Kharat was a close associate of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, and a convert to Budd...
<i>Travels with an </i><strong>open book</strong><i> on my lap</i>
Issue 11 – October 2019, Spotlight

Travels with an open book on my lap

1. View of clouds from an Air Plane | 2. ‘Compartment C Car 293’ by Edward Hopper I am half asleep while cruising at 35,000 feet above the earth’s crust at a speed of 920 kilometers per hour. On my lap is Bruce Chatwin’s ‘Anatomy of Restlessness’, with my finger marking my progress. There is a slight chill from the air-conditioning, and I am lulled by that special calm of being alone among many, and of traveling while sitting still. I hear the sound of someone else turning a page. Looking across at a clean-shaven man in his 40s holding a paperback with gem-stone studded fingers, I search his face for hints of what he might be reading... is it a murder mystery involving identical twins? Or the story of a family struggling to survive through a global epidemic? Or is he reading ti...
Image and Word
Issue 11 – October 2019, Spotlight

Image and Word

Every story of mine starts as a series of images flickering on an internal screen. All of Me began with the image of a boy lost and alone in the dark, talking to the darkness and listening to the multiple voices that spoke back. A story in Washer of the Dead condensed around the image of hanks of hair flying in the dusk air above the roofs of an ancient city. Whisper in the Wind started with the image of a crumbling wall, cracks stuffed with papers that flew free in the wind like sudden butterflies. Image courtesy: Times of India As I tease at the meaning of the images a story begins to form around them. I take long walks through the beautiful village of Moira and the story grows with each step. It could end up as a screenplay or a book. The choice is never mine. Each story comes with a ...
सावदा घेवरा के पाठक
Issue 10 – July 2019, Spotlight

सावदा घेवरा के पाठक

आइये मिले पाठकों से अंकुर किताबघर में किशोर-किशोरियाँ किताबों की दुनिया से जुड़ते हैं। किताबों को पढ़ते हैं, परखते हैं, सराहते हैं और उनके साथ रचनात्मक खेल भी करते हैं। किताबघर में कहने-सुनने, देखने-समझने, पढ़ने-लिखने और बयां करने के अलग-अलग अंदाज़ के लिए जगह है। साथी कहानियाँ पढ़ते भी हैं, और रचते भी हैं। कभी पढ़ी हुई कहानियों में अपनी रचनाओं के सिरे ढूंढ़ते हैं तो कभी अपने आसपास की घटनाओं और किरदारों से कहानियाँ बुनते हैं। अपनी रचनाओं को मोहल्ले में बाँटते हैं और मोहल्ले के लोगों को किताबघर से जुड़ने के लिए आमंत्रित करते हैं। अंकुर किताबघर, सावदा घेवरा के साथियों ने अपने मोहल्ले की ऐसी शख्सियतों को तलाशा जिन्हें किताबों से लगाव है और पढ़ने से जुड़े उनके क़िस्सों को सुना। ये क़िस्से थे रोज़ाना की ज़िम्मेदारियों और पाबंदियों में पढ़ने के लिए वक़्त चुराने के; पढ़ने के ठिकाने ढूंढ़ने के; पढ़ने की लत लगने के; ...
<i>Whose</i> <strong>Land?</strong> <i>Whose</i> <strong>Rain?</strong> <i>Whose</i> <strong>Voice?</strong>
Issue 10 – July 2019, Spotlight

Whose Land? Whose Rain? Whose Voice?

The Earth is not just for humans.Everything on the Earth has stories. Our literature represents our time on Earth. So when someone says, ‘our time will come’, it means their stories will be heard. How can we have ‘stories from the margins’ if we gaze from within the margins? Whose land? Whose rain? Whose voice? इस बारिश में / नरेश सक्सेना जिसके पास चली गयी मेरी ज़मीन उसी के पास अब मेरी बारिश भी चली गयी अब जो घिरती हैं काली घटाएं उसी के लिए घिरती है कूकती हैं कोयलें उसी के लिए उसी के लिए उठती है धरती के सीने से सोंधी सुगंध अब नहीं मेरे लिए हल नही बैल नही खेतों की गैल नहीं एक हरी बूँद नहीं तोते नहीं, ताल नहीं, नदी नहीं, आर्द्रा नक्षत्र नहीं, कजरी मल्हाहर नहीं मेरे लिए जिसकी नहीं कोई ज़मीन उसका नहीं कोई आसमान। These reflections and images are based on and woven around, an interview...
<i>Voices from the </i><strong>Library</strong>
Issue 10 – July 2019, Spotlight

Voices from the Library

Who is a librarian? Who chooses to become one? What keeps them in the library? In this video, we bring you voices of people who work in libraries and believe the space has helped them discover more about themselves.
<i>The </i><strong>gendered public library</strong> <i>in Kerala</i>
Issue 9 – April 2019, Spotlight

The gendered public library in Kerala

Modern Kerala society has a long tradition of social dialogue in public spaces. This essay will explore the participation of women in this public sphere, drawing on a short student research project focused on public libraries. Women in Kerala access public libraries not only for issuing books and reading them but also to participate in the culture of public dialogue. But how accessible and inclusive towards women are these public libraries in reality?  I address this question by drawing on a study conducted in two different areas of Kerala. The urban setting was Njanapradayini Library Neyyattinkara (Thriuvananthapuram, South Kerala) and the public and Central libraries in Thiruvananthapuram city. Libraries studied in the rural setting included VelamPothujanaVayanasala, Mayyil, Kannur distr...
<i>Spaces for </i><strong>Reading</strong><strong>, </strong><i>Spaces for </i><strong>Inclusion </strong>
Issue 9 – April 2019, Spotlight

Spaces for Reading, Spaces for Inclusion

"Each of us is an embodiment of many stories. Often, our more dominant stories could be hurting us while other healing ones lie dormant and ready to be discovered. By making room for the discovery of our healing stories, we create the spaces for inclusion."   Such was the outlook we developed and adopted towards designing reading spaces at two locations for children with special needs for an Early Intervention Centre in Mumbai. This outlook is the result of experience and associated insight : over two decades as a parent to a young adult with special needs, over three decades as a social activist working within groups striving for the inclusion of the socially marginalized, and as an architect working at breaking down barriers through ‘universal design’.   The design, which i...
<i>Kitabein Kuch Kehna Chahti Hain:</i> <strong>Children & Books at Studio Safdar</strong>
Issue 8 – January 2019, Spotlight

Kitabein Kuch Kehna Chahti Hain: Children & Books at Studio Safdar

For the last three and a half years, every Sunday without a single break, children from Shadi Khampur, Ranjit Nagar and Guru Nanak Nagar in West Delhi come to the Studio Safdar community library to read, to sing and play, to enter the world of books. Studio Safdar is an arts space, named after Safdar Hashmi (1954-1989), one of the founders of the theatre group Jana Natya Manch. Safdar was killed at the young age of 34, while performing a play in an industrial area on the outskirts of Delhi. Studio Safdar was set up in 2012, to give concrete shape to Safdar’s dream of a space that would on the one hand be a resource for theatre persons to hold rehearsals and performances, and on the other to revitalize the cultural and artistic life of a local, underprivileged community. Safdar himself wr...
<strong>Fifteen Copies and Counting:</strong><i> Why Wuthering Heights Keeps Multiplying on My Shelf</i>
Issue 8 – January 2019, Spotlight

Fifteen Copies and Counting: Why Wuthering Heights Keeps Multiplying on My Shelf

Like most people in ishq waala love with books, I have amassed a loosely curated personal library over the years. Illustration by Alia Sinha My parents, like most newly upwardly mobile folk who want to give their children a better education than the one they received, made fine distinctions between useful and wasteful reading all throughout my school years. This meant that all off-the-syllabus fiction was looked at askance; only textbooks constituted serious reading. My school years were therefore spent hungering after books. The school library allowed only one book per week and even that privilege was taken away during exam months and board years; very few peers read so borrowing was out too, and Kindle and Nook and other handy e-readers were still a few years away. I made the best of ...
<i>Relation of </i><strong> Word</strong> <i>to </i><strong>Image</strong>
Issue 6 – July 2018, Spotlight

Relation of  Word to Image

The relation of word to image is the origin of writing. A visual symbol or icon, that carries with it an association with a word, is called a pictograph. The pictograph is rather like what today we might term a “logo” which a designer creates to give a specific “identity” to some product. The Mohenjodaro seals are another example of a pictograph. From ancient times until the present day some artists, particularly in the Far East, use personal handcrafted seals as a way of “signing” their creations. Letters for Tagore had a character of their own. They were in a way his “signature”, representing his unique personality. Seals have often shown the way to linking the word to an image. A seal cannot be just simply de-coded as a system like a word composed by letters of the alphabet. A seal is...
<strong>Telling </strong><i>Gandhi’s Story</i>
Issue 6 – July 2018, Spotlight

Telling Gandhi’s Story

The story that I am going to tell is about the way we made the illustrated book ‘My Gandhi Story’, published by Tulika Publishers in 2014. By ‘we’, I mean Radhika Menon, Rajesh Vengad Chaity, Ankit Chadha, Sunaina Suneja and I. The story begins like this: When Tulika publishers asked me to do an illustrated book on Gandhi for children in collaboration with the Warli artist Rajesh Vengad Chaity, I panicked. It was not because I had never collaborated with traditional artists before; on the contrary, I had worked with embroidery artists from Kutch and Kaavad makers from Rajasthan to make animated films and illustrated books for children but my approach had always been more ethnographic. I would interact with them and together we would arrive at the images and text. In this case, the artist ...
<strong>चित्र पुस्तकों द्वारा बच्चों में </strong><i>कला के प्रति रुझान विकसित करना ........</i>
Issue 6 – July 2018, Spotlight

चित्र पुस्तकों द्वारा बच्चों में कला के प्रति रुझान विकसित करना ........

स्कूल पुस्तकालय की चित्रों से सजी पुस्तकें बच्चों में पढ़ने की उत्सुकता जगाने में अहम भूमिका निभाती हैं | इन किताबों के चित्र पाठ्य को कल्पनात्मक विस्तार देते हैं, सौंदर्यबोध जगाते हैं और बच्चों के पढ़ने के शुरूआती दौर में अनुमान लगाकर पढ़ने में मदद भी करते हैं | स्कूल पुस्तकालय संचालित करने का एक महत्वपूर्ण उद्देश्य है  - बच्चों को उत्साही पाठक बनाना | पाठक बनने का मतलब है कि बच्चे पढ़ने का आनंद लें; उनमें चित्रों के प्रति सौंदर्यबोध विकसित हो | इसके लिए स्कूल के पुस्तकालय में एक शिक्षक या पुस्तकालय संचालक की भूमिका महत्वपूर्ण होती है कि वह बच्चों के साथ किताबों का उपयोग करते हुए इन दोनों ही पहलुओं पर ध्यान रखें | अकसर स्कूलों में देखने को मिलता है कि बच्चों को किताबें पढ़ने को दी जाती हैं लेकिन चित्रों को गौर से देखने और उन पर बातचीत पर बहुत ही कम ध्यान दिया जाता है | यह बात कई विद्यालयों मे...
<strong>Literally Art </strong><i>- Words and Images</i>
Issue 6 – July 2018, Spotlight

Literally Art - Words and Images

There is a long established connection between books and art in the form of the familiar graphic illustrations that give visual life to a written concept and help to illuminate elements of a story or poem with colour, shape and form. The skill of the illustrator is one of interpretative inspiration and, not wishing to push alliteration too far, also one of personal insight, sentiment and experience. Books create pictures in the human mind - complex scenes of imagined places, times, conversations, memories and images are conjured into being through the power of words to create cognitive landscapes that are as much about the reader as the writer and the life experiences that shape the individual. This article is a little about the creative use of text in the drawing (Guided Drawing) and the...