“Children need encouragement to open and read a book for pleasure these days,” said Manas Mahapatra, NBT’s coordinator at the pavilion. With a string of creative-writing workshops, interactive meets with authors and NGOs, and story-telling sessions, the NBT hopes to offer a helping hand. Competing with modern-day technologies such as computer games and multi-channel cable television, reading has to be made especially appealing by using innovative methods, Mahapatra said.

Over 75 schools and 400 readers’ clubs from the city have been invited to the children’s pavilion. On Monday, over 150 students, between 10 and 15 years, attended the week’s first session — ‘Bridging the Gap’, the brainchild of NGO Healing Touch. The aim: instilling the importance of interactions between the young and old. The result: children were taken back to the roots of storytelling through ‘stand-in grandparents’, or volunteer senior citizens.

J N Chaurasia, 67, and R P Bhatnagar, 65, both from south Delhi, told a captive audience a series of stories about mythical animals and faraway lands. The important role of grandparents in inspiring storytelling and reading was discussed, though more than half the students said they had spent little time with their grandparents of late. Renu, 12, recalled the ghost stories her grandmother narrated her, while Pushpa, 13, said she would now ask her grandfather to tell her more stories about his youth.

As a follow-up to this event the NBT ran a book-quiz, with 14 contestants from seven schools. The quiz focussed on Indian authors and books, with many questions aided by video images. For instance, after showing films depicting Rabindranath Tagore and R K Narayanan, children were asked if they could identify the authors. After an hour’s grilling, two joint-winners emerged: Shradha Mandir Public School, Faridabad, and Delhi Public School, Rohini.