Evidence in our community library
“You were selling clothes at the sale, I saw you! “ “ No bags, no miss? I saw you selling bags. “ “ Nazmeen miss was selling bags, Sujata miss was selling clothes “ These are the comments that greeted me today at our Chimbel community library as I walked in on a wet rainy […]
Retreating into Books
Like many ideas, the Book Retreat emerged from a frustration. I was frustrated that a group of Editors at Pratham Books, one in particular whom I have followed from the side lines and whom I know to be intelligent, thoughtful, charming and determined could not see what I was pointing out about books in general […]
My date with Alice in Wonderland
Written by Shirley Miranda Bookworm invited me to do a Read Aloud for the Mobile Outreach Program at Cacra village. I was given a pop-up book of Alice in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda, and Stephie, Manjita and I made plans to have a tea party at the end of the session. With great enthusiasm, we […]
To Fall in Love with a Book
To fall in love with a Book Is to stroke its spine, with a finger lighter than laughter. Is to cling to each letter, with a grip tighter than memory. Is to siphon the ink on a page, into the veins of your soul Is to hover over semi-colons, and taste the depth of each […]
Submissions for Torchlight Issue 6
Torchlight, a journal of libraries and bookish love, powered by Bookworm (Goa), is 5 issues old. We are getting set to launch Issue 6 in July 2018, the theme of which is Library and Art. Libraries are hubs of creativity and in them art is manifested in a variety of forms–sometimes even in a recycled […]
New Arrivals in the Library
A library is a space full of books. It is a magical place that takes the readers to an unknown world. A library is also a vibrant space, for readers to come, browse, sit, talk about books, read and borrow. When one talks about vibrancy in this space, it is not the movement of people […]
Drop Everything for the Library!
Non-fiction as a genre has always been my least favourite. It reminded me too much of the school books and text books from which we had to extract the precise information that was needed to reproduce on paper and get your marks. While fiction and fantasy could lead you into worlds and stories that stretched […]
Writing Workshop at Chimbel
A three-day summer workshop was held for the children in Chimbel. When Terence asked me to do something for the seniors, I was quite hesitant. But he said he believed I could do it, and hence I took it up. I’ve always loved writing, and I decided to do a simple creative writing workshop with […]
Art Workshop at Chimbel
I conducted an Art Workshop alongside a Creative Writing Workshop at Chimbel. Getting the children to be disciplined was a bit of a challenge for me…the little children who were juniors, were sitting in a half circle around me. On the first day of the workshop, the children were a bit too jumpy and excited, […]
When Konkani saved me!
My first leading session was at Cacra…the night before the session I couldn’t sleep I was as nervous as ever and got up more than a few times during the night. Nervous because a voice in my head said I could do it. Another voice in my head said I couldn’t. So I finally woke […]