Speaking to author Paro Anand is like peeling an onion: every line in the conversation is like a new layer.
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the seasoned author returned to a dramatized reading session from her books organised by One Up Library. Around 30 students from public schools participated in the first such venture post-pandemic. As a result, one moment Paro talks excitedly about the joy of reading, and the very next, her mind wavers off to the challenges she faced during the pandemic.
“I could not focus on reading as there was this constant feeling of isolation, a sense of being bound in space and the lurking fear of the coronavirus,” she says, and then again follows it up with how receptive the children were at the workshop. “Their engagement in the session and the questions they asked, reflected that some parents made the effort of reading books to their children,” she says.
Author Paro Anand
. “There were occasions when I conducted online workshops for children and found parents also attending them. Initially, I was not comfortable but realized many parents had read my books and were curious to see what I would share with their children. Even children started reading and enjoying,” she adds..
“Paro feels, in the grind of daily life, reading becomes synonymous with textbooks and Internet reading just for the sake of it. There is no joy of reading. .”
Author Paro Anand at a workshop with children in Delhi recently | Photo Credit: Special Correspodent
Paro shares a lot about the joy of shared reading with children. She tells them stories of clouds and rainbow, bear and moon, and encourages them to ask questions. It is in their questions that Paro finds answers to socio-economic and geographical divisions in our society. “ I have organised workshops for kids impacted by militancy in Kashmir and over the years, I have developed a personal bond with some of them. One of the kids is now grown up and got married. But before that, he underwent severe trauma after losing near and dear ones to guns and bombs. He lost his father at a young age and became the caregiver to the family,” Paro recalls.”
And then, there are other kids, she continues. “In Kupwara, I once told a story about a bear who wants to climb on to the moon. There was a sense of disquiet among the children and one of them asked if it was a true story. I said No and a boy bravely said, ‘If it is not the truth, then it is a lie.’ I told him, ‘it is a story’. The kids did not know what a story was. They had no imagination, no fiction. They had been robbed of it. I have worked with over three lakh children but never faced children who did not know what a story was. They had no space for a story in their life,” she says.
In contrast, the kids she addressed in Delhi last week were very receptive. “They know how to request, how to demand for a story,” she says.
Author Paro Anand
The pandemic helped in bringing out human emotions. “There was a lovely effort called School ki Ghanti where you could give a missed call to a number. They called back and played a story recorded by a writer or a storyteller for your child. It helped to bridge the gap between the rich kids with smartphones and those who could not afford one,” Paro says. However, it was not the same everywhere, she adds, as in Kashmir the children had no access to the internet. ”
With children being the most engaging part of her life, there are no full stops in Paro’s life. She has Paro has lined up workshops in Bhopal, Bengaluru and Madurai next. “I will be talking on the joy of reading because I personally lost that joy during the pandemic. I want the children to remain engaged with books,” she says. .”
