Blog written by Rucha Prabhudesai (Bookworm Intern)
As children, we all had spaces that felt safe, warm, and welcoming. When I was growing up, Bookworm was one of those spaces. Bookworm to me was a place where I could get an abundance of books and participate in a variety of sessions that left me with knowledge that I use till date. Another crucial space in my childhood was my primary school, Shiksha Niketan. One of the factors that made the school memorable was the collection of the books in the library and the Library class conducted by none other than Bookworm’s Sujata Norhona. Tr. Sujata made us maintain a notebook for this class where we noted down the name of the book, the author, difficult words, what we liked, and what we didn’t like. The class didn’t only encourage us to read books, but how to perceive them from an individual lens. As a dyslexic, my library notebook was full of spelling errors, but as one flips through the pages of the notebook, they will notice the spelling mistakes reduce significantly, marking the effectiveness and importance of the Library class. Reading was obviously something that didn’t come naturally to me. The adults in my life were worried that I would never learn to love reading. But I did, and Bookworm was a huge reason for why that happened. At first, it was the Library class in my primary school. But when I shifted to a new school for my secondary education, I had suddenly lost access to a huge collection of books. Lucky for me, just then, Bookworm moved its library close to my home. I would walk to the library often to borrow as many books as I wanted.
Fourteen years after I graduated from Shiksha Niketan with Bookworm’s Library class having a significant impact on my life, I had the opportunity to intern at Bookworm while pursuing my Master’s in English Literature. As an intern, I was able to take on multiple roles, but one that has filled me with a great amount of purpose is working with the Libraries in School department. I assisted with the Traveling Library, assisted with sessions at Independent and Lead Schools, and also conducted my very own session at an Independent School. Watching the program leave a notable mark on children’s lives has been a wonderful experience.
When I visited schools with the Travelling Library, I watched all the children’s eyes glisten with excitement seeing the rows of books in the van. I saw them select books of languages they weren’t familiar with to try and challenge themselves, I saw them admiring the illustrations in picture books even when they struggled to piece the words together, and I saw quite a few children giggling at Archie’s comics but being too shy to borrow them. I observed these children build an inseparable bond with literature at a very young age.
But this is not all the Libraries in School program does. I watched them have a much stronger impact on children in Lead and Independent Schools. An experience I will never forget is the guided drawing activity conducted by Diksha at the government primary school Dharjo. Diksha first read out a short and sweet story to the children and asked them to draw specific aspects from the story. While these children were familiar with the art of drawing, they were seeing soft pastels for the first time.
They were amazed with the functionality of it. One child was so amazed with the possibilities of the new type of crayons, he used them in the most creative way possible. The first thing the children were asked to draw were rain clouds. While everyone grabbed a dark crayon and started drawing typical fluffy clouds, this child brought out his rough book and cut out a single cloud. He placed this cloud on his sheet of paper and used the soft pastels to skillfully trace the clouds onto the page he was provided with. Watching this child made me realise that Bookworm’s Library in School program not only gives children access to literature, but also gives them access to material that helps them explore their skills to the fullest.
At the end of the day, it is true that accessibility to books and materials is a privilege. I have come to realise that sometimes accessibility to creativity can also be a privilege. Bookworm’s Libraries in School program has taken on the daunting task of bridging this gap for school going children.