Vandana Bhagra, Shimla
Creativity is a process and so is learning. As children, we are always curious to know more and learn at every chance we get, we are armed with umpteen questions. This was just one such occasion when they finally got answers from our Jury Member, Dr Usha Bande and Gupteshwar Upadhayay, who conducted an offline workshop, at Brews & Books Café, with our young winners of the pan-India Short Story Writing Competition, 2024, based in Shimla City. The event was moderated by Vandana Bhagra, a journalist, editor and the founder of Keekli Channel. Questions addressed during the workshop were based on the basic elements of story writing, structure, plot, ideas, cause and effect, characters, dialogues, adaptations, among many others that make a story what it is.
Our eminent mentors for the day were Dr Bande, a retired Principal and former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She was a professor of English in Government Girls College (RKMV), Shimla, for almost three decades and was invited to Visva-Bharati Vidyapeeth, Shanti Niketan as a Visiting Fellow post-retirement. She has a special love for languages and is proficient in Hindi, English and Marathi. She has authored over 18 books and notable among them are A Box of Stolen Moments, Celebrating Life, Mehakati Bagiya to name a few. Her coffee table book on Forts and Palaces of Himachal Pradesh, is co-authored with Prof Him Chatterjee.
Born and brought up in a small village of Bihar, and a chance transfer to our beautiful Hill State made Gupteshwar Upadhayay fall in love with it. It has been more than 35 years and he hasn’t left the City. With a Master’s in English, Hindi and History, and with diplomas in teaching English and Creative Writing, he has dedicated his life in the field of education. His foray into writing led to the publication of his short story collections, Ek Chutki Bhool and Chirag Jal Utha Hai; poetry collections, Pagdandi and Basant Abhi Nahi Aaya; all in Hindi. A Handful of Oxygen is his first attempt to write in English. Aside from this he has written innumerable essays, poems, and stories that have been published in countless newspapers, magazine as well as has been broadcasted on Shimla TV and Radio.
The questions put forth to our mentors included the process of turning an idea into a story; elements of storytelling; integrating the elements of culture or mythology by changing the plot and structure, while keeping the core theme same; how not to write essays, or if one forayed into it, then bring it back alive with characters and dialogues. Additional aspects shared were how travelogues should be weaved like a story by adding interesting incidents, by maintaining the tempo of the story, adding human elements and touching base with emotions.
Some of the seminal questions asked by our young writers were, “Why do people or family members discourage writers”; “How important is the use of language, whether simple or complex”; “Should the meanings or phrases used for emphasis be explained or not”; among others.
Finally Vandana summarised the points discussed during the workshop with her inputs as to how children can create a ‘story board’ and use it as a reference point to review the story once they finish! They themselves become the first editor and are able too gauge how to rework the story before submission.
You will find all the answers in the videos shared below:
