By IANS
New Delhi : They listened intently, savouring each detail as the story teller read out one story after another. For the visually impaired children who attended a story telling session Wednesday on the International Children’s Books Day, it was a day full of fun and laughter.
Organised by publishing house Katha, the event saw 20 children from the National Blind School and the Tagore International School being entertained by theatre personality Arvind Gaur.
“I loved the stories,” said 12-year-old Ruksar Amin, a student of the National Blind School who attended the session at the Katha premises in Sarvodaya Enclave in south Delhi.
International Children’s Books Day is celebrated April 2 to mark renowned children’s writer Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday.
“I especially liked the story ‘Jalebis’. I have never seen a jalebi but I love the taste. At the end of the story, I wanted to eat a jalebi,” Ruksar smiled.
Written by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, “Jalebis” was a huge hit among the kids. A story of temptation and the idea of bargaining with god, it was narrated and then its characters discussed in detail with the children.
“Ma Ganga and the Razai Box”, another story which focussed on the pollution in the river Ganga, gave way to a small discussion on environment.
“I hope someday I can do something to clean the water of the Ganga,” 14-year-old Pradeep said.
Commenting on the enthusiasm of the kids, Gaur said that more such story telling sessions, especially for visually impaired children, should be organised by schools and other organisations.
“We should have more such reading sessions and publishers should concentrate on Braille books that have good stories,” Gaur said.
The stories were narrated both in English and Hindi.
Besides this, volunteers of the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), an organisation that works on issues of literacy, read out the story “Bobak Bakra” and sang songs.