Organised by Think Arts and Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, the programme titled Roald Dahl's 100th Birthday Party, drew children from across the city to the Elgin Road outlet of STORY.

 

"Although planned like a birthday party, we did not want the programme to consist of only games. We wanted to make the children curious about the writings of Roald Dahl and learn more about the exciting characters that he had created through his stories. We want to foster a reading habit among the children," said Ruchira Das, the driving force behind Think Arts.

 

Children merrily drew on The Wondrous Wall of Dahl, listened to stories, made up some of their own, handcrafted  faux toffees and gave them bizarre names, got expert artists to tattoo some of Dahl's famous characters on their arms.

 

Even stage actor and director Jayant Kriapalani joined in the fun, reading out to the young Dahl fans.

 

While children had a gala time putting the beard on Mr Twit in a game of blindfolds, even some of the adults present at the event could not resist participating in the game.

 

One of the most heartening aspect of the event was that Future Hope, the NGO with which STORY works closely, had facilitated street children to attend the programme

 

The grand finale was a cake cutting session in honour of Dahl to the delight of the children.

 

Malabika Banerjee, Director, Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, said that the next session of the Kolkata Literary Meet will be preceded by a literary meet for children. 

 

  
Images: STORY