Not many among us can ever live a novel. Of course, Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto are among the lucky few. But then creativity knows no limits, and when Shweta Taneja wrote The Ghost Hunter of Kurseong, she was also stitching a chance for our children to live her novel. And thus was born the idea of ‘A ghostly detective workshop’.
“When my book was about to be launched, I wanted to do something on the ground to spread the word around about the book, a kind of interaction with children. But I wanted to stay away from yet another book reading session or a storytelling session - basically any session which has an audience and me talking all the time. I wanted another medium, in which the children who attended the session interacted,” says Shweta.
That is when she thought of giving them a mystery to solve. According to her, it is another way of story telling, that of story creating. “Children put together the pieces of the puzzle I give them, and many a times, the story that they come up with, is similar, parallel or refreshingly different to the story I made up. I think this ownership in creating the story by solving the mystery, makes them want to do more of it,” she says.
Fact Finding
For the workshop, Shweta did her bit of research. She tried and looked up if teachers in schools were doing these kind of workshops. “You will be surprised to see that there was no one who is doing detective workshops like this. So I just created something, without being sure it will work. But thankfully, my first session, which had about 200 children, was a runaway success. So now I know that the detective workshop format works,” she says.
Age Limit
Shweta has limited the age group for the workshop to between 9-13 years and she has a reason. “The detective workshop targets the same age group as my book, the tweens. The complexity of the case, the clues and the format have been created keeping in mind this age group. For anyone around 14, it will be too easy to solve and that will bore the child.
So, I prefer this sweet age range for the workshop. However, while testing the format, I did check it with my friends, who are all in their 30s, and even they had a great time solving it. You never know, in the forthcoming workshops, I might include the parents too. There’s no rigidity in the format,” she says.
Another innovation
The author is also planning another medium to reach children. An application which is an interactive book. “Here as well, you, the reader will choose at the end of each scene and depending on your choice, your mystery’s ending will be different. In a way, it’s a personalised storytelling session where everyone makes a story together. And that’s both challenging and fascinating for me to create and see at work,” she says.
Important connect
Shweta feels that it is important for authors who write novels for children to involve them through such workshops. “The only way of reaching out to children is through TV, tablets, parents or schools.
They don’t go to a bookstore, where foreign titles are preferred than Indian anyway, and it’s hard to get them on social networks. So a workshop in which a child creates a story with the author and builds up the mystery is a good way of getting some children interested in the book. I am yet to explore the app, which is something that might create a high level of interest in children too.
But the idea for me has been to try new things, figure out where the children are and what they are doing and go to them,” she says. She is currently working on a series about a female tantric detective based in Delhi.
m vyas.sivanand@newinidianexpress.com
Schedule of workshops in Bangalore (Open to public)
Today (11.30 AM), Hippocampus, Koramangala, 080- 2563 0206/ 4110 1927
December 7 (4PM), Atta Galatta, Koramangala https://www.facebook.com/AttaGalattaKoramangala???>