A Rainforest in Chimbel

A weekend library session was scheduled into my day. I would be at our community library room in Chimbel and it would be weeks since I was there, so I was excited and curious to experience the sessions we do at the library through our library educators.

The story chosen was The Great Kapok Tree, by Lynne Cherry a story filled with possibilities but also richly written with voice, point of view, information and stunning illustrations.

I imagined I know the story well and by the end of the week very little can surprise me and I was delighted to be propelled out of my langour and into the Rainforest before I could say sloth bear.

Megha opened the session with discussions about clothes and where they come from and after wonderful responses that ranged from shop – Panjim – sheep we arrived at cotton. Where does cotton come from ? Children shared their experiences of cotton fields and cotton plants and even picking cotton – but did they know that cotton also comes from trees ? ” bah ” said one ” trees , no”.

Megha opened her capacious bag and pulled out pods that went around slowly and with great diligence  hands explored, touched, smelt and shook. ” Who put this cotton inside ?” one asked and they all looked at Megha, knowing she is one of magical possibilities. ” The tree”, she answered and there was great listening and looking as the cotton trees of the world were shared and maps were opened to explore where they grow and slowly but surely we were on our way to the reading. But no.

Megha passed around cards with rainforest creatures like ant eaters, porcupine, sloth bears, monkeys, toucans, jaguars and more. Every child became that animal. They read about the features, they learnt about the movement, diet and life world of the animals and took great interest in the characters who would come in the story soon, I imagined, but no.

Before I knew it, I was a giant Kapok Tree and as Megha called out, each of the animals came and surrounded me, talking and chattering and wispy flakes of cotton were swirling around the room and we were all in the Rainforest – just like that. But no.

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We were in a small, rather hot little room in Indiranagar, Chimbel, where only a story and a story teller could transport us and remind  us that yes, life is full of possibilities.

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