Enroll your child for this fun, interactive online storytelling session

What is the best way to read a story to children without losing their interest or focus Make it interactive engage them in conversations show some illustrations and add a bit of dance and singing That seems to be the mantra of Goshtarang an innovative project by Sonalebased Quality Education Support Trust QUEST a notforprofit organisation Goshtarang is a project where theatre and storytelling techniques are used as part of QUESTrsquos reading and writing enhancement programme where trained theatre professionals perform stories based on childrenrsquos literatureWalunj during an offline storytelling session at a Goregaon schoolThis Friday Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum is conducting an online storytelling session in collaboration with QUEST which will be presented by Mahendra Walunj an actor and storyteller The session which will be conducted in Hindi is a sweet story about two children Yemi and Koku called Gaav Ka Baccha a Hindi adaptation by Arundhati Devasthale which was originally written in English by Jane CowenFletcher called It Takes a Village In the story the young siblings are left to take care of themselves while their mother goes away for work However as the children step outside the home to have some fun they end up getting lost and separated The story revolves around their attempts to find each other the village residents each child encounters how the villagers take care of the children and the siblingsrsquo surprisingly positive experiencesldquoThe onehour session in Hindi will start with the Goshtarang anthem the story will be read out along with asking the kids a few questions and all of these will be done while children are shown illustrations from the bookrdquo explains Walunj who has been associated with the programme since 2019 He adds that therersquos a whole lot of dancing singing and masti in the sessionVaibhav Lokur and Mahendra WalunjThis story which is based on a village located in Africa is a great way to teach the participants between the ages six to 14 years about food clothes people and culture from the rich continent ldquoI ask them about where we are right now the city the state the country the continent and will then guide them about Africa the village and the lovely characters Koku and Yemirdquo explains Walunj Through the session he keeps asking them questions like what are their opinions on the scene what they might think will happen next in which direction will the characters head in the village and what would they audience do if they found themselves in situations similar to Yemi and Koku ldquoWhile the children learn a lot out of this session our aim is to make sure that they are having fun too Itrsquos all about making the learning a fun process through the medium of storytelling and theatrerdquo says Vaibhav Lokur who has been looking after the Goshtarang program since 2019 and is pursuing a PhD in theatre arts from the Centre For Performing Arts in Pune University They started the programme in an offline mode where they go to various schools across Maharashtra they still do and enact the stories in front of the students But they adapted to the online mode during the pandemicldquoFor the online sessions we have been mindful of the fact that we must make it interactive so that the young audience does not lose focus Hence we start and end the session with activitiesrdquo he shares Activities may include discussions around any illustrations that are part of the book or they share about the scenes they related to most or they share something from the story that inspired them On October 27 7 pm Age group 6 to 14 yearsLog on to bdlmuseum registration link in bio