Engage. Experience. Educate

Children accompanied by grown-ups participate in various activities at the Becoming exhibition in Mumbai on Sunday. Pic/Fiona Fernandez

A pre-teen appeared lost on his own island despite the surrounding buzz. He was engaged in sketching a Ganesh idol with a pencil on a piece of paper. In another corner, a young mind was affixed, marvelling at magnified illustrations (from a picture storybook) of an aerial scene of Mumbai depicted in a fantastical scenario. And in one of the busier sections, kids were putting together a jigsaw puzzle, based on an illustration from a picture storybook.

These scenes unravelled on the final day of the travelling exhibition called Becoming that wrapped up on Sunday. It was an exhibition curated by children's author and Pickle Yolk Books publisher, Richa Jha and showcased 125 illustrations by 75 past and contemporary illustrators from books published by 26 publishers. Originated in Delhi, the Mumbai edition was patronised by organisations like Tata Trusts (PARAG), Takshila, Jaipur BookMark and Coforge Public Libraries, and was ably supported by Sangeeta Bhansali of indie bookstore, Kahani Tree.

Going by the nuggets of information that I was privy to, from parents, children, and educators who were in attendance, it appeared to have served its purpose. For most of them, it was their second, and with some families, their third visit! It was a sight to behold, as I doubled up as a fly-on-the-wall, soaking in all the chatter, and the pitter-patter of tiny feet in an otherwise very ‘adult' space of an art gallery.

In a space-starved city like ours, it's tough enough to plough through the red-tapism and babudom to develop creative spaces for adults. For kids, it's an even bigger, Herculean task to find opportunities and tiny windows of wonderment, where they can let their minds wander, and allow the ideas in their heads to find safe, immersive landing spaces. What we witnessed across the first level of the PL Deshpande Hall in Prabhadevi was a delightfully created ecosystem, carefully curated for kids to discover art, adventures, stories, fantasies and just about every visual experience inside a gallery space, which refreshingly, didn't feel intimidating or overwhelming.

One of the most fascinating parts was dedicated to the artworks by the pioneers of illustration in children's books in India - stalwarts like Abanindranath Tagore, Upendranath Kishore Roychowdhury, Sukumar Ray, Nandalal Basu, and Satyajit Ray.

Over the days of the exhibition, I learnt that students across age groups and from diverse backgrounds - municipal schools and international schools with affiliations to overseas educational institutions - had participated in a host of activities. There was also large and enthusiastic participation from libraries, NGOs, and not-for-profit organisations working with children. Art workshops and performances around children's books were quite the hit, with the aim of bringing children and the world of art and literature closer.

This, according to me, is a win-win in so many ways. After all, how many such ideas can boast of such a seamless coming-together of children and the world of books? Not just that, even parents, educators and names associated with young minds in some way or the other could be seen engaging with fellow members of this community.

It wasn't a festival. It wasn't a fair. It wasn't a children's weekend special. Here was an exhibition that emerged from a simple idea into a living-breathing ecosystem where literature and art organically blended to allow kids to just ‘be' and have fun in a space that they could call their own for the duration of this unique experience.

The exhibition wrapped up with the cutting of cakes, to celebrate the event's success and the people who made it happen. For us, the clincher was when Jha unabashedly admitted that the response was far better in Mumbai than in her home city, Delhi! That utterance underlined two things: Mumbai makes time for such endeavours despite being pooh-poohed often for always being a tearing hurry with little or no inclination for such pursuits, and secondly, that we desperately need more such immersive, and discovery-driven experiences so our kids can step out and experience books in novel ways; an ideal escape from their gadget-filled lives.

It's said it takes a village to raise a child. In this case, it was heartwarming to see how a community got together to do their best to raise lit-meets-art-happy children.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana

Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper