Today was my first day at work. As a part of Seagull's Youth Leadership Programme, Choice, Bishan and I had been discussing the possible list of organisations that I might have been able to work with, given that my focus was Creative Writing. After a few sessions of brainstorming, Megha's name cropped up.
Bishan informed me that Megha and Richa were looking for an intern for their Creative Writing Organisation, WritehereWritenow.
I went to meet Megha at Seagull's resource centre last week and after chatting for a bit, she asked me if I could come to Oxford Bookstore Junior, where WritehereWriteNow was conducting a workshop next week.
Today,as I walked into Oxford bookstore, I met Megha and Richa. "Is that Reeti?" she asked me, to which I replied in the affirmative. (I have a niggling suspicion that my new bright red spectacles made me unrecogniseable). Megha introduced me to Richa and then the two of them asked me whether I over ate (Yes,OF COURSE!!!) and whether I was left-handed (which I am!). I am truly delighted and honoured to be working with fellow lefties and fellow over-eaters.I'm sure it's going to be fantastic working with you :)
At around four-thirty, I noticed that there were children trickling in,one by one, with their parents. Most of them were members of WritehereWriteNow and there were two cute kids from Class II. Most of the kids were from classes IV, V and VI.
The theme for the Workshop was "Create your Own Superhero". Richa asked everyone if they read comics that had superheroes. One of the kids remarked that he doesn't like "the animated form", which possibly means that he likes fleshed out, human characters to portray Superheroes. They would have to write a story on how their Superheroes could combat the Villain-the monstrous Big Bad Bookworm.
Richa asked all the kids to come up with a Bio Data (otherwise called a Backstory). Each child would create a sort of CV for his/her character and give him/her a Real Name, a Real Age, a Superhero Name, a real Job, his greatest human strength, his greatest human weakness,his Superhero strength, his Superhero weakness, his worst memory as a human being (scars from his childhood, etcetera) and his Supercharacter, among other things.
Farham and Chirayu talked about Don and Krissh, their superheroes (Chirayu was sincerely asking me for the spelling of 'sunglasses' and 'acting' and he's an awfully cute kid) while Garima and Ruchira talked about Jayman and Johnnyman. All of the children will be putting up their superhero stories on The Website.
The workshop ended with Megha handing out bookmarks and registration forms and talking to the Children about WritehereWritenow.
At WritehereWritenow, we encourage children to write stories,poems and articles as well as read other children's writings. Information about the workshops are also posted on the Website.
The next Workshop is scheduled to be held at Oxford Bookstore (Junior) on the 8th of this month.
As I sign off, let me just say that I'm delighted to be on board and I look forward to my stint here at WritehereWritenow.
I've always been fond of writing myself and the tie-up of writing and Social Concerns is one that appeals to me immensely. I'll also be putting up the photographs taken during the course of the workshop, as soon as possible.
Reeti Roy
