LitTales 2024 — Unleashing The Imaginations Of Young India

The Verandah Club, Coimbatore, seeks to bring about a cultural renaissance of India through activities which they have been reasonably successful through their magazine, Western Ghats Literature Festival for English and Kongu Tamil Sangamam for Tamil.

Realising the need to address the schoolchildren in their formative years, the Verandah Club conducted a Children’s Literature and Cultural Festival — LitTales at the Prakriya International School campus on 6 and 7 January 2024.

The first edition of LitTales is a step towards sensitising children and teenagers to the diverse influence of Indian values, tradition and culture on our day-to-day practices.

Themed "Imagine, Immerse, Illuminate", this festival had a host of activities that included author interactions, storytelling, interactive workshops, lecture demonstration on art, gymnastic performance through yoga and more.

The event was attended by over 400 children between Classes VI and XII from more than 10 schools.

LitTales was curated by best-selling author and curator of Indica Books — Sai Swaroopa Iyer.

It featured 10 sessions over two days with some thought-provoking sessions with eminent scholars like Swami Anukoolananda of Chinmaya International, Padmashri awardee Dr Ananda Shankar Jayant, Muneet Dhiman of Vidyakshetra, author G V Shivakumar of Indica, Br Gurupriya Chaitanya on Indian Knowledge Systems from Anaadi Foundation, story-teller and author Vijaykumar, artist A Mahadevan from CS Academy Erode on Cultural Heritage work done for Perunjalangai art from by INTACH and storyteller — Ishani Lauren Naidu.

The basics of how to write stories, imagining characters, creative thought process, building on aspirations, importance of being rooted were all dwelled upon. All the sessions were well received by the children and what stood out was the quality of questions which the young minds threw at the storytellers.

Knowledge partner for the event was National Book Trust under Ministry of Education, Government of India.

During the fest, a story writing competition themed “My Bharat, My Hero” has also been announced and the best entries will be rewarded and published as book curated by author Sai Swaroopa and will be launched in LitTales 2025.

Student engagement stood out in LitTales and was heartening to see Young India sharp and agile. Such initiatives are need of the hour and much more need to be done across the country.

Verandah Club wishes to make LitTales an annual calendar event like its English and Tamil Lit Fest formats and expand geographically in coming months.