Sunday, December 22

Chiaroscuro

गाव ग्रंथालये व्हाया सरकारी शाळा
31Mar By Prakash Anbhule2 Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 9 – April 2019

गाव ग्रंथालये व्हाया सरकारी शाळा

“कोणत्याही बालकाला शिक्षणापासून वंचित ठेवले जाणार नाही आणि त्याचे मन मारले जाईल अशा शाळेत त्यालाजावे लागणार नाही,” अशा एका जगाचे स्वप्न उराशी बाळगून महाराष्ट्रातील सातारा जिल्ह्यातील फलटण गावात१९७८ साली डॉ मॅक्सीन बर्नसन यांनी प्रगत शिक्षण संस्थेची सुरूवात केली. अगदी वंचितांपासून ते उच्चवर्गीयांपर्यंत सर्वांना गुणवत्तापूर्ण शिक्षण मिळणे गरजेचे आहे आणि प्रत्येक मूल जन्मतः शिकण्याच्या ज्या नैसर्गिक प्रेरणा घेऊन येते त्या शिक्षणाच्या प्रक्रियेत मारल्या जाऊ नयेत अथवा त्यांना लगाम बसू नये ही संस्थेची मुख्य तत्त्वे. देशभरात प्रयोगशील म्हणून ओळखली जाणारी कमला निंबकर बालभवन ही शाळा प्रगत शिक्षण संस्थेने सुरू केली. पण आपल्या स्वतःच्या एक-दोन शाळा सुरू करून आपले व्यापक स्वप्न पूर्ण होणे शक्य नाही हे संस्थेने जाणले.हे स्वप्न सत्यात उतरवायचे असेल तर मुख्य प्रवाहात असलेल्या शासनाच्या शाळांबरोबर काम क...
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<i>One </i><strong>walk</strong>, <i>three </i><strong>public libraries</strong>, <i>many </i><strong>thoughts</strong>
30Mar By Mandara Vishwanath and Preedip Balaji1 Comment
Chiaroscuro, Issue 9 – April 2019

One walk, three public libraries, many thoughts

Mandara Vishwanath, Preedip Balaji, Rajeswari Parasa, and Akash Chandan helped organise a Public Library Walk as part of City Scripts 2019, an annual urban writings festival hosted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in Bengaluru. In this piece, they chronicle their experiences of the walk on 9 February 2019, which began at the Mythic Society Library on Nrupathunga Road, then moved on through Cubbon Park to the State Central Library, and ended at the IIHS Library in Sadashivanagar. The walk was curated and hosted by the chief librarians of each library. It is easier than ever these days to buy a book. We live in the times of Amazon Prime guaranteeing overnight delivery and the Kindle providing easy access to a variety of books published worldwide at the click of a button....
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<i>Preface to </i><strong>Issue 8 </strong>
1Feb By Aravinda Anantharaman and Samina MishraNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Preface to Issue 8

This issue’s theme, Libraries: Personal and Communal, comes from the experiences of people we like to see as part of the growing Torchlight tribe – people who have sought to work with books, libraries, and reading because of how it has enriched their lives. Many have expanded this deeply personal engagement to inhabit a larger space, to grow a community in. Torchlight itself is such an endeavor and so we felt, it is worth asking the question: What drives this desire to share this love, almost compulsively, and what comes from it? The resultant stories are about libraries, rules, aspirations, indulgences – and all the intersections between personal love and public spaces.   In Spotlight, we focus on personal love in Neha Yadav’s Fifteen Copies and Counting, a story about the several ...
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<strong>Bookshelf Travels:</strong><i> Borrowed Books in Personal Libraries </i>
1Feb By Torchlight TeamNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Bookshelf Travels: Borrowed Books in Personal Libraries

Lovleen Misra जिस के पन्ने क़ैद न करें उसे क्या चुराना जो दिमाग संग दिल पे न छाए उसे क्या चुराना जो आपकी हमबिस्तर न बन सके उसे क्या चुराना जो किताबी हवस न जगाये उसे क्या चुराना जिसे लौटाने का मन चाहे उसे क्या चुराना. जो अपने घर पे अपनी न लगे उसे क्या चुराना   जनाब, किताब तेरी या मेरी नहीं पढने वाली की होती है.   Translation Why steal something Whose pages fail to entrap you Why steal something That does not overwhelm the stone-heart Why steal something That cannot share your bed Why steal something That does not provoke a bookish lust Why steal something That you want to return Why steal something That does not feel at home in your home Janab, a book is not mine or yours It belongs to the reader Roxanna Khan I borrowed this book circa 2013 from a close ...
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<i>On The </i><strong>Same Page</strong>
1Feb By Sujata NoronhaNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

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. Think libraries and one does think about rules, about silence. about overdue fines. Here, we look at libraries and rules, to see if there are rules we must keep but maybe - just maybe -there are a few that are quite unnecessary! Cookie Monster in the Library - Really ? The Library brings to mind books, but it also brings to mind rules. Here is how Mike Thaler imagines them in The Librarian From B...
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<i>Screen, Paper,</i> <strong>Stories! </strong>
26Jan By Sayoni BasuNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Screen, Paper, Stories!

I am not what can be called a careful reader. I love printed books—I live surrounded by them, and help create them. But I dogear my books, and leave them open which cracks the spine. I read in the shower, which causes the pages to curl up. I’d like all the books of a series to match, but this, I am not really hung up about. What lingers for any book I read is the story within. This sounds really trite, I know, and while the pleasure from the physical book—the design and the feel of the paper and the weight of the cover—is very much there, these are pleasures I forget more quickly. Reading for me is very private. I do recommend books, of course to friends, and those I really really like, on social media— may be one in three months—because I feel the world needs to read them. I do not revi...
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<strong>Rohith Vemula Library</strong>- <i>The new face of revolution</i>
26Jan By Shataakshi Verma1 Comment
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Rohith Vemula Library- The new face of revolution

Rohith Vemula, a young PhD scholar at Hyderabad University, committed suicide on January 17, 2016 prey to systemic oppression and institutionalised discrimination. His suicide triggered a new political wave throughout the country and brought to forefront the presence of caste, a reality rejected by many in the political space, and gave way to a movement bringing debates around caste to the centre stage. One result was the formation of Rohit Vemula Education Centre and Library in Phule Nagar, Powai, Mumbai. One enters the lane of Phule Nagar, near IIT Market, a slum community, to see the houses clinging to each other as one, people sitting and standing around their front doors, dogs running and sleeping around, feeling best at home, children playing and bustling around, all signs of a com...
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<strong>Collections </strong>- <i>Who is responsible?</i>
26Jan By Sujata NoronhaNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Collections - Who is responsible?

“Librarians are turning to the police to recover borrowed books”  This was the headline in a national newspaper. The article went on to talk about how users in the public library treat borrowing as taking and that more than half the collection does not come back to the public library.  We really need to pause to think about unreturned books. Does that constitute theft to necessitate police action? In what nature of relationships do we turn to the police?  This really is the over riding question that we feel the library - the public library needs to consider. Relationships are at the stronghold of public services, it is why institutions like the public library were imagined in the 18th Century. In India, it was in the Princely State of Baroda where Maharaj Sayajirao III Gaekwad introduced...
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<strong>This Book </strong><i>Need Not be Returned!</i>
20Jan By Aravinda AnantharamanNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

This Book Need Not be Returned!

On Instagram, I find that Yamini Vijayan, editor of children’s books, has been chronicling community libraries from her travels. How many have you visited, and what are they like, I ask. “Oh so many,” she replies, “...libraries on islands, and libraries on top of hills. Libraries that are squeezed into biology labs. Libraries filled with bizarre religious and political texts. Sprawling libraries with not a soul in it. Tiny libraries that are exploding with readers. Grand libraries with grand bookshelves. Libraries in which books hang from strings tied to windows…” Her desire to visit libraries on her travels began with mild curiosity but has become second nature now. “Often, when I find myself in libraries located in relatively conservative cultures, I’m shocked by the number of very, ve...
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<i>Because of </i><strong>Libraries </strong><i>We Can Say These Things</i>
20Jan By Samina MishraNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 8 – January 2019

Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things

Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, songwriter and novelist. Born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, she calls herself a “wandering poet, though San Antonio, Texas is both home and the inspiration behind many of her poems. “But everywhere can be home the moment you unpack, make a tiny space that feels agreeable," says Nye. She was the recipient of the 2014 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. This poem is from the collection, Fuel. Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things She is holding the book close to her body, carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk, down the tangled hill. If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield. She looked hard among the long lines of books to find this one. When they start talking about money, when the day contains such l...
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<i>Mama</i>,<strong> let’s read two stories!</strong>
25Jul By Jennifer Thomas1 Comment
Chiaroscuro, Issue 6 – July 2018

Mama, let’s read two stories!

“Mama, let’s read two stories!” This is a familiar refrain from my 4 year old, Z who insists on a picture book read aloud every night before going to bed. He dislikes going to bed. So he tries to prolong his waking hours by insisting we read at least two stories. In these nightly rituals which mark the close of yet another day, Z sees and says unexpected things, opening for me a small window into the world of how children learn to read.  He often doesn’t respond to pictures as I expect him to but he listens carefully as he is later able to retrieve new information to make connections with his own lived world. In our shared reading of picture books, I realize I’m doing much more than narrating a single story to him. I’m opening up possibilities of endless connections and multiple stories f...
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<strong>Guided </strong><i>Drawing</i>
22Jul By Rhea D' SouzaNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 6 – July 2018

Guided Drawing

For the video, we used a translated version of 'The Night of Glowing Sembar‘ from the 'Night Life of Trees‘ by Tara Books. The process of the guided drawing is here. Participants of the 'guided drawing' are requested to sit comfortably (in a circle in this case so that they could share the stationery) and silently listen to the story that will guide their drawings. Instructions on how to use the colours and any doubts are addressed at this point.  The stationery ( soft pastel & oil pastel colours and A1/A2 Cartridge sheets) should also be laid out by this time. Once the story read aloud begins, the participants must concentrate only on the text of the story. They may close their eyes. ( Additional instrumental /ambient music pertaining to the text may also play in the ...
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<i>Dolls as </i><strong> Artifactual Literacy </strong>
22Jul By Milan KhanolkarNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 6 – July 2018

Dolls as Artifactual Literacy

Notes from a conversation with Milan The domain of artifactual literacy is of growing interest. It brings together material culture and literacy. The ‘stuff’ of culture is understood as a valid and powerful form of meaning-making. Milan Khanolkar, a Goan artist opens up the notion of a text as something beyond the printed and even spoken word. It gives us an insight into how story-making can be multimodal and how texts can be woven in diverse ways. Bookworm has published her children’s book, Bindi Su. Milan has also worked on documenting stories from the rich oral tradition of certain Konkani speaking coastal communities. Even from childhood, I was fascinated by dolls – not the dolls that you could buy from the market but the ones that I could make myself. I wanted to make my own creati...
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<i>Stand Up,</i> <strong>Comics!</strong>
21Jul By Aniruddha SenGupta2 Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 6 – July 2018

Stand Up, Comics!

The graphic book genre has taken interesting baby steps in India in the past decade Given that my brothers and I were even as young children heavily into reading, it's difficult to fathom what may have prompted my father – a reasonably typical Bengali middle-class man, a government servant – to start plying us with Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), Classics Illustrated and Tintin comics. The most likely explanation was that they were meant as sources of inspiration for my brother Orijit (at the time still spelt the 'official' way, Arijit), who had shown a prodigious talent for art at a very young age. Whatever it was, it paved a path of exploration for us that we have continued to travel on into our adulthood. If anything, Orijit has even been something of a trailblazer, as far as India is concern...
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<strong>Listening to Images: </strong><i>The Experience of Working with</i> <strong>Tactile Illustrations</strong>
17Jul By Junuka DeshpandeNo Comments
Chiaroscuro, Issue 6 – July 2018

Listening to Images: The Experience of Working with Tactile Illustrations

A few months ago, I had an opportunity to create a visual book that completely challenged my way of seeing, imaging, visualising and making. I must say that the learning has taken me towards a way of engaging with the design that is intuitive, hands-on and poetic. This is simply because, the constraint was big- the images I create, will not be seen! The book was meant to be for visually impaired children and my usual way of approaching ‘image’ from a perspective of the visually able world would not have worked. This triggered a question, what is an image then, if it is not to be seen by eyes? An image lives in the realm of the seen world. Much about its existence, interpretation and function relies on the visual perception of its maker and the viewer. At the same time, it is also an exper...
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