Ahmedabad: The first edition of the Ahmedabad International Book Festival has something for people of all ages and generations – especially its young visitors. The fifth day at the Children’s Pavilion ‘Pragya Shivir’ at the Festival began with an interesting session on Gujarati folktales by storyteller and toy-based pedagogy expert Seema Wahi Mukherjee. For her session today, Mukherjee narrated “Buddhi Ke Saudagar Ki Dukan” with the help of a lively costumed hand puppet ‘Tia’. ‘Tia’ was specially designed and created by Ms. Mukherjee for her session at the Ahmedabad International Book Festival. “I always add excitement and charm to every session I do, which is why I created ‘Tia’ for this event; she will now be with me in all my events,” said Seema Wahi Mukherjee. “Storytelling as an art makes books come alive. It is a great idea to include storytelling sessions in the book festival,” said Parshottam Rupala, while expressing his views about the Ahmedabad International Book Festival 2024.
The second session at the Bal Mandap ‘Pragya Shivir’, “Balgeet: Folk Songs of Gujarat” was organised by musicians Chirag Solanki, Bhairavi Dixit and Hardik Bhatt from Bal Shodh Vishwavidyalaya. When Chirag Solanki was asked why it is important to introduce children to songs and music, he explained, “Children understand subjects much faster through music – for example, I memorise multiplication tables not by writing them down, but through rhyming,”
Singer and musician Chinmayi Tripathi and Joel led the final session at the Bal Mandap ‘Pragya Shivir’ on Day 5 with a poetry writing workshop. In the end, the duo encouraged the children in the audience to write their own poems – some of which were even incorporated into a song by Chinmayi and Joel!
Ahmedabad International Book Festival Other highlights of the fifth day included Gujarati essayist and humorist Ratilal Borisagar and writer Alpa Shah expressing their views in a session on ‘Humorous Gujarat’ on the writer’s forum ‘Shabd Sansar’. Another session on the topic “Bhashaa Literature in a Globalized World: The Way Forward” was conducted by English-Malayalam bilingual writer and poet E.V. Ramakrishnan on the same forum. Writer V.V. Pathmasili shed light on the topic ‘Connecting Boundaries, Building Connections through Books: Celebrating India-Sri Lanka Literary Relations’ on the international forum. For the cultural forum – theatre, the fifth day saw “Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan” by literary stalwarts of the Sindhi community Thakur Bhambani, Naresh Udhani, Daya Lalchandani and Dr. Hundaraj Balwani etc. We also conducted a workshop on ‘Garbh Sanskar’ on the Gyan Ganga forum, which discussed traditional Indian practices for the holistic nutrition of the unborn child. Finally, the Children’s Film Festival showcased exciting films from across the world, including the Indian feature film ‘Soaring Wings’, the Syrian documentary film ‘Black Rain in My Eyes’ and the Iranian short film ‘Soo’.
Highlights of Day 6
Tomorrow at the Writer’s Forum – ‘Shabd Sansar’, a session on ‘Dastan Goi’ will be conducted by lyricist and playwright Naishad Purani, artist Ankit Patel and actor Hardik Shastri. Writer Pushpa Kurup will discuss ‘Gods Dancing Among Men’, while lyricist Amitabh Verma and journalist Rajiv Vijaykar will conduct a session titled ‘Melody and Emotion: The Heart of Hindi Film Songs’.
The Children’s Pavilion – ‘Pragya Shivir’ will host workshops on diverse topics ranging from folk tales of Gujarat to a session titled ‘Chandrayaan – 3: A Successful Mission by ISRO’ led by Vikram Sarabhai Space Exhibition Centre. The Children’s Film Festival will continue its streak of interesting films like the Indian short film ‘Knot’ and the Iranian animation film ‘A Passenger from Ganora’.
Author Mette Johansson will take to the international stage to speak on ‘Transformational Leadership: Shaping the Future of Corporate Culture’ while the band Kaviraag will make the evening memorable by performing on the cultural stage on the 5th day of the Ahmedabad International Book Festival 2024.
