Blog written by: Sujata Noronha
Bookworm this April has been heavy and ponderous, the weather uncooperative and oppressive and yet I have had two of the finest and most surprising days at the library because of stories, now in my 21st year of practice !
We have begun a new initiative this year, to draw more parents into the library. Not only because they are finally the decision makers on our children’s time, reading choices and often attendance in the library but also because they are human beings and our intention is to enable reading joy all around.
As I walked up to the library in Indiranagar Chimbel, I met a young member, who told me most happily that his chacha was coming for story time. I grinned foolishly thinking he was teasing me because our last parent group had a library full of mums.
As I entered the library room, I sternly told the children who wanted a session for themselves, that we could do just one brief book chat activity and then I needed the space for parents. Some of them said their ammi was coming, an aji was coming too and others shared that their mum was at work and would come if she arrived back soon or was busy with a tailoring order and could not come. Children quickly told me which families had already left for summer break and I visualised a small circle of parents.
The room soon had about seven mothers greeting each other, greeting me and sitting down for charcha and kahani. It could be understood as magic, but it is not as all of you who work with children, community and books know. Sonali had put up posters announcing the story text, children were repeatedly told to remind at home and the dedicated WhatsApp network was used. Just before I was to begin, two men entered the library room and I noted the young one, peeking from the window , nodding sagely at me. Not only did his chacha come for story time but so did his chacha’s friend !
We had an interesting conversation. It began with me setting the context around Razia’s Ray of Hope, her keenness to go to school in a war torn Afghanistan. A parent mentioned the war in Iran and Sonali and I got a chance to pull out an Atlas and show the locations of these two countries. We spoke about the oil and mineral wealth of the region and one parent remarked that muslim countries are rich countries. We let the unsaid be said in our collective silence and quiet . Then the story continued and it was tremendous to have the fathers respond on what they would do, to quietly accept the challenge from the women in the room when they were giving the ‘correct’ answer and to have the women reflect on their own educational opportunity or lack thereof.
We discussed choices, schooling, society, politics, gender , parenting, decision making in joint families and closed with wonder that Razia goes on to empower other girls a whole generation later to go to school through her Foundation. As we were gathering our cups of juice, and putting books back on shelves, one of the parents turned to another and nodded with a big smile and the other said, “ mast session “ and from the corner of my eye I noticed the two men slip away from a children’s library smiling at each other.
Libraries can continue to hold us. It was a few days later that I was in our Carona library in the village of Aldona preparing to hold a session with grown ups on ‘picture books’. Shruti was not sure if the five adults who registered would come at all and I settled into the idea that it would be a small group this time. As the clock moved towards 5.00 pm there was one ‘grown up’ and then another and within a few minutes there were 10 grown ups who decided to engage with the experience of picture books in the library.
We had a fun evening, understanding and clarifying book types, reminiscing about slam vs autograph books, journals vs diaries, note books and guide books, catechism books and prayer books and our own experiences with illustrated books. We also went deeper into understanding the concept of a picturebook and how that is different from the format of a Picture Book. Heady stuff !
Before each of us spent time reading a picturebook, my colleague Anandita introduced the group to a few books that were selected for the quiet reading time and as I looked around the table , which was too small for this group, the idea of what libraries can do expanded right before me. Philu ‘aunty’ was reticent to read, keen to listen and not sure where I stood on the religions of the world, so I surprised her with a read aloud of Ashley Byrant’s vibrantly illustrated Who Built the Stable and received the warmest, tenderest smile in thanks.
We had a young mother with a household upon her, make time to be at the table to read for herself. We had an older mother whose children are ready to leave home, desire to return to learning and reading and the session absorbed her in. We had a young intern who is studying literature think about children’s literature in a fresh way for the first time. We had women who were grandparents and never had an opportunity to look at picturebooks before making time to come and read and there were more. Each one making space for themselves, holding space for each other and taking space in the library to understand more.
Where else, but in the library around a story table , in a circle will we have these small opportunities to remember we are a part of a shared humanity and all of us can share together. As we were wrapping up, a grown up said, “ I learnt so much in such a short time” and it felt perfect to match that with my own, I felt so much in such a short time and it is all because of the library.