Barely a moment ago were the assembled children told they could head to the library, and the little girl in the pink top could barely contain her excitement.
“I have chosen a book already,” she exclaimed to her friend as the two girls pranced down the staircase of the vibrant, airy bungalow. Moments later they were occupied in the world of fairies and elves, mermaids and magic, and adventures and mysteries.
Located in a tranquil lane off Road No.36, Jubilee Hills, Treasure House is a child's paradise. Parents' too, if only they'd be willing to spare sometime for their children, cuddling them as they read out rhymes and fairy-tales and guide their dear ones through their first journey with books.
Founded by two entrepreneur NRI-returnees, Shubha Simhadri and Padma Rudraraju, Treasure House houses a treasure of a children's library and is also home to an experience centre where not only do they get to participate in fun activities, but also discover trivia of their favourite authors.
On Saturday afternoon for example, there was an animated discussion on JK Rowling. In an adjacent room were trifles on Enid Blyton: of how many of her books reflected negative stereotypes regarding gender, race and class, or how she ridiculed her first husband in her character, ‘PC Goon'.
In another activity room, Roald Dahl's vocabulary came to the fore. And so we had the words like ‘swishfiggler', ‘stinkbugs eggs' or ‘snozzcumbers' scrawled on chart papers.
However, it is the library that takes the cake. Divided into different sections based on the age groups: baby to five, five to eight and eight to 14 years, it houses touch-and-feel books, basic concept books, good night books and concept books, aided reading material, comics and novels by established authors procured from both within the country and abroad.
“We renew our book list regularly. On an average 30 books are added to the library every month,” says Ms. Shubha. After all, one of Treasure House's primary objectives was to promote reading habit among children.
“We use this place to organise exciting experiences and memories for kids and their parents,” explains Ms. Padma. “We help them bond. We do cooking sessions, bonfire nights and outings.”
Children also are exposed to art appreciation, music appreciation, movie afternoons and interactions with authors. Come January and they will get to interact with popular US fantasy author Sarah Prineas who penned Magic Thief.
Discover Treasure House at >www.treasurehouse.in .
