The ‘LitWit 2 Festival’, a celebration of creativity was organized jointly by Word Munchers, a creative writing platform run by Richa Wahi, and VR Books run by Bali Sanghvi. Richa Wahi believes “Learning takes place outside the classroom also and so it is important for children to take part in diverse activities,”. While Bali Sanghvi said, “We are very keen to have this festival even in its online avatar and we are happy that we went ahead with it since it involved so many children from all over the globe.”
Six Days of Fun Learning
The six day festival was flagged off on 21st March 2021 with a Panel Discussion followed by twelve workshops held over the course of a week. The panel discussions addressed several contemporary issues related to children’s mental health in the ongoing pandemic situation, the challenges faced by teachers and so on. The panel discussion ‘Learning in the times of Covid- 19’ was attended by people from the world of education and psychology. They debated on the pros and cons of online education, its impact on the learning abilities of children, the mental health of adults and children coping with the change, the transitions that teachers underwent, and the challenges faced by schools which brought in changes to adapt to the new circumstances.
The students of Word Munchers put forward a few questions for each panelist, and the session was moderated by Ms. Aparna Bhattacharya. Mrs. M. Atal, an accomplished professional spoke about the difficulties faced by children with special needs since they did not have access to the kind of help available in a classroom. Mrs. Shaneel spoke about the mental health issues faced by children since they are being confined to their homes and online classes are the only way out. Ms. Chamberlain gave an American input on how the children in her country faced similar communication problems like those in India. Mrs. Keditsu talked about the lack of access to technology in the North East, and the challenges she faced while trying to balance her home front with the professional commitments. Aastha Bagree, a student, talked about her initial reaction when online classes began and how she missed her school.
The Children’s Tale creative writing workshop for 6–10-year-olds was held by Ms. Vinita Garg, a writer, who took the children through the process of character profile building. The enthusiasm of the participants was infectious. Over the next few days events introduced participants to the techniques of script writing, thriller writing, Haiku, origami and kirigami, dance movements and so on. The event on vintage cars chaired by vintage car enthusiast Mr Prithvi Nath Tagore was quite invigorating. He talked about the need to promote and preserve vintage cars. A common favorite among the children was the Rolls Royce Phantom, out of the many cars displayed in the presentation.
Origami, Kirigami & Vegetable Carving
The last day of the festival, 26th March, started off with a ‘Poetry Competition’ for all age groups held by Word Munchers. Visual prompts were given to the three different categories. It was a very close competition and from each category there are two winners and a few ‘Special Mentions’. Following this was a session on the ‘World of Roald Dahl’ conducted by Mrs. Bali Sanghvi and Mrs. Nishita Garg where the children learnt about the life and work of Roald Dahl. Since most children already loved Roald Dahl, it was exciting for them to know more about him.
LitWit 2 was wrapped up with a unique session on ‘ vegetable carving’ by Ms. Balaka Boral. It was a completely new concept for the participants, and in this session, children accompanied by adults learnt to carve fruits to make interesting centerpieces and eye-catching salads. Everyone carefully carved their fruits and enjoyed eating them after the session was over. Overall, the children learnt a lot through fun activities while enjoying themselves. It was a perfect way to make learning fun.
