Bonding over books

23^rd October,2010, 10 Am. Crossword BookStore, Nirmal LifeStyle Mall, Mulund

This was an impromptu from the heart visit spurred on by the enthusiasm of VIDYA Umang staff,Geeta Joshi, the planning by Gurav Sir and support by Balaji Sir. 11 children of class 9 and 10 children hopped on to a BEST bus, bought their own bus tickets accompanied by the 3 teachers,reached NIrmal Mall in Mulund. For Manisha it was the first ever ride in a BEST bus. The morning's plan to browse at Crossword a sprawling bookstore. The mall was quite colourful and the Diwali colours were still on. They began the visit at the art exhibition by 71 year old, national award winning Prabhakar Mohite's oil colours. The art work was human faces and the children were freely expressing what they felt about each picture. Rekha spotted a huge Buddha painted on the pillars and was ecstatic.

At the store they were given a brief of how the books were classified under various heads- fiction, classics, crime and mystery, art, business management. A little in awe and hesitant to touch the books, once they were encouraged that the whole idea was to choose the books of their own liking there was no stopping them.

The colourful atlases, the Amar Chitra Kathas, stories of India's musical genius A R Rahman, Lata Mangeshkar, recipe books, and a small section on the Marathi books too. When Raju asked me what was an octave and getting a break meant I was happy beyond words. In the traditional classroom not often we see them letting down their guard. Here, neither right nor no wrong just touch, read, feel talk and explore...words like black mamba, was part of that day’s vocabulary. Dipesh, was looking at Surinam in a kids atlas and as he looked at Egypt in the atlas, the pyramids were familiar- courtesy Singh is King! And yes, the Colombian coffee beans- when asked to guess what it was he said it was chocos!! For Mohan, it was the Ramayan and the Dasavtar in Marathi which held him spellbound. Priyanka and Preeti were busy copying the fact file from the atlas for the presentation on Egypt and US for the UN Day.

Tarla Dalal's books and Sanjeev Kapoor's books had them excited! For each one the morning's expedition meant something- be it depositing the bags at the baggage counter, putting the books back in the right rack, being frisked by security and the escalator ride! .

It was a reluctant group that had to be gently asked to put down the books for their return to Powai.

Over Diwali faraal which they had brought and Masala Dosas and chai, they boarded the bus back to UMANG in time for the afternoon session but not before extracting a promise for more visits! It was truly a bonding over books especially for the adolescents who felt special to be part of an intimate group. Crossword Mulund was very helpful and told me it was the first time that such a visit had taken place at their premises.

Jayshree Murali

Mentor,VIDYA Umang

Core Management,VIDYA Mumbai