Pratham Books Champion : Ranjani Jagannathan

For International Literacy Day (8th September), we had a dream - we wished that 100 people would volunteer to conduct storytelling sessions across the country. We ended up finding more than 250 champions to conduct storytelling sessions across the country. We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog.

This story was sent to us by Ranjani Jagannathan.

Storytelling session which we didn’t allow to be a washout!

It started with the clouds going all gloomy in the afternoon. And then Kolkata is already jinxed this season with the Dengue epidemic, a fellow champion called to say she had to rush to the hospital, two other moms called to cancel out with their children because they were stuck elsewhere because of the rains!

My own kids went to sleep an hour and a half earlier and had absolutely no enthusiasm to get out their warm comforters in the pouring rain to go to the venue, the apartment office room which could accommodate about 15 people comfortably and if more came I had made provisions to spill over into the garage right outside. However, only 10 kids including 2 of my own made it and boy! While I was disappointed at the small numbers , it soon turned to joy when I saw how eager these kids were not only to listen to the story but to read a story each of their own. The storytelling session soon turned into one where each kid wanted to read some the two pager Rs.2 /- books which I must say is a great brainwave of Pratham books while others the longer books like “Why don’t things fall up?”

If you are wondering where these additional books came from, I am already a big fan of these books since I first spotted them at a book fair last year for my five and seven year olds its a literal treasury which they can dig and explore and always come out winners!

Today I saw the same pleasure mirrored in the children that came and I wished more had been able to attend had the weather not played spoilsport, but I am sure there is another day and another session, I am sure going to look forward to it! Thank you Pratham books.

 

Thank you Ranjani for spreading the joy of reading!

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

This blog contains stories sent in by all our champions. Browse through the blog for more stories. You can also go through the tags on the right side of the blog to find stories happening in your own city.

Note : If any of you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting 'a book in every child's hand', write to us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.