Anyone who can read Roald Dahl’s The BFG without a pause, and glide over words such as ‘jabbeling’, ‘human beans’, ‘scrumdiddlyumptious’, ‘rotsome snozzcumbers’, ‘wondercrump’, ‘butteryfly’, ‘delunctious grubbel’ and ‘exunckly’ like they’ve spoken them all their life, needs many pats on the back.
And, that’s what storyteller Janaki Sabesh got when she concluded her session, organised by The Hindu Young World Club and Puffin Books, in association with Starmark, at Express Avenue, to commemorate the birth centenary of an author who taught children that it is all right to be different, that dreaming is fun and, often, only a thin line separates fact and fantasy.
As Janaki read from the book — which is all about the big friendly giant with bigger ears, nine villainous 50-ft human beans-eating giants, a little orphan girl Sophie who is amazed at The BFG’s collection of dreams and his sojourns from giant country to blow dreams into children’s rooms — you travelled with Sophie and the Giant as they set about rescuing humanity from giants who loved gobbling them up.
Janaki had worked hard on her session. “Children can easily spot an error. And so, I went over the words many times,” she said.
The children — more than a 100 had turned up — listened eagerly, piping up to answer Janaki’s queries.
Some doodled, some followed what she read word for word in the book, and some got comfortable on the floor mat.
Before the session ended, some children got to read out three lines each from the book, with some help from Janaki.
They say a good story does many things to people, including sending them into slumberland. A couple of children had a beatific smile on their faces and did not bother stifling a yawn. What better way to go to sleep than listening to something written by a master storyteller who loved children!
Some kids munched on chocolates, which Dahl’s granddaughter Sophie said were his favourite. In a recent article in The Guardian , she wrote of her ‘Moldy’: His knowledge of chocolate was encyclopaedic. He could recall specific dates and years of invention with the glee of a patriotic child recalling the kings and queens of his country.”
And, for him, chocolate was “…the stuff of dreams, exotic and faraway”.
The venerable writer would have approved seeing children listen to their favourite story while chomping down on his favourite chocolate!
