Keekli Book Club is just giving children an opportunity to spread their creative wings with Minakshi Chaudhary as a mentor, but it is up to you to take advantage of it!
Keekli Reporter, 23rd September, 2018, Shimla
You can weave magic with words and when young minds dwell deep into the world of books then nothing less than actual magic happens, as they take you on a journey of mystery, drama, fantasy, miracles, ghosts and what not! The young minds had crackling stories and narrations as they attended the Third Session of KEEKLI BOOK CLUB at noted author Minakshi Chaudhary’s sweet abode. Accompanying the kids on this session was Rakesh Kanwar, a noted writer, philosopher, a critique and of course the better half of Ms Chaudhary. But then the highlight of the day was how kids took keen interest in listening to each other’s stories and became critiques themselves as they questioned peers about their stories.
The session was divided into two parts. The first part had children’s narratives as they read their own stories based on books read or something totally original and new. The first story was “Bhoot Aur Laal Gaadi” by Dhruv Chauhan, on how a ghost haunts a path and is responsible for major accidents in the area. Then Ahar was all calm and poised as she narrated her story titled “Two Best Friends”, a sweet tale about lifelong friendship and bonding; how two young girls become friends and then end up being in the same college and later on have the same career thus becoming doctor. As Jiya dwelled into the world of magic, fairies and witches with “The Beauty of the Queen” she told us a nice tale of a King and a Queen who are cursed by a witch, and only after receiving a boon from a fairy can the Queen’s beauty be restored, but with a twist in the tale.
We then had Rudra in his bold voice, armed with his story “Chidiya Ka Badla”, how an elephant destroys a bird’s nest, and the bird with the help of a woodpecker, a bee and a toad plan to take revenge to trap and kill the elephant. Gory, Yes it was! Stavya did a summary of a Geronimo Stilton book Paws of Cheddarface with a new twist, the title of the story was “Stay Away Cheater”. Sarah had her own take on birds and rage as her story title said it all, “Five Angry Birds”. How disobedience and defiance can at times lead to your own downfall. And well in her story thus the birds were duped into being captured into a TV box and thus her invention of the Angry Birds videos game.
Adyut, the master storyteller that he is, with impressive dialogue delivery narrated his story titled “The Unghostly Ghost”, about how under certain circumstances, our imagination can weave wild ideas. An eerie night, watching a ghost movie, suddenly a power cut and loud banging on the door; all elements of a perfect ghost encounter, but of course with a twist. Finally Abhishek shared a serious message through his story, “Influence”, about two friends a good and a bad one, whose circumstances lead to a reversal in their characters and with time they have a completely different outlook towards life. The story was left with an open ending for the audience to discuss and review.
After each story Minakshi discussed key points with the kids on what additional facts or details could be worked upon for further improvements and to keep these in mind, when they bring in their next story.
The second part of the evening was equally interesting as children were divided into teams:
- Booklovers – Stavya & Abhishek
- Bookworms – Sarah, Ahar & dhruv
- Historians – Jiya, Rudra & Adyut
The idea was that within five minutes the teams had to come up with a story with two key points: One that is was a mystery / murder / ghost story setting in Minakshi’s library; Two that it should have a moral.
The Booklovers story title was “Angry Books” – on how the books got angry with them, that kids watch too much TV and played games and didn’t pick them to read. The ghosts of books scare them that they should read a book daily and 365 days in a year. The Bookworms had a mysterious rocking chair in their story, a sign that sit on me and read a book, and finally the Historians were suddenly captured by an evil Minakshi as she opened Napoleon’s book and kids were pulled into the book in the middle of the war. Jumping from one book to another they somehow manage to escape. But they lost as the moral was missing in their story.
An evening spent with excitement and gust as children clearly proved that all they need is guidance and direction and they can be groomed into amazing story writers. Composing stories with mystical beings, ghosts, drama, emotions and passion is what these kids brought with them, and in turn taught us that imagination cannot be curbed, it just needs wings. So if you want to learn to fly with us to the world of books and words, then join the KEEKLI BOOK CLUB!
