The second session of ‘Once upon a book’ storytime and drama workshop for
children organized by Cinnamon Grand was held at Nuga Gama, ‘the village in the city,’ last week. Leading author and Professor in English at the University of Colombo Neluka Silva, read from the book ‘Milk Rice’.
The aim of the workshop
was to offer a dose of ‘literary
nourishment’ and expose children to the wide range of cultural stories that are inspired by Sri Lanka.
The session started off with ‘Neluka Aunty’ making a self
admission that she started to write very much later in life, hence her happiness at seeing so many
children at Nuga Gama, making time to further hone their writing skills at a much younger age!
She said the book she had
chosen, ‘Milk Rice’, was a collection of short stories based on Sri Lankan children, and her own story,
'The Monkey Man’ was a tribute to a kind-hearted, little girl who tries to rescue a little monkey from a
terrible plight.
Her story captured the children’s interest, given that they too had encountered the man with the
monkey ‑ performing on the streets or as some of them said “even in our own gardens for money.”
The poignant tale is thought-provoking and questions this cheap but popular entertainment option that borders on animal cruelty, and a little girl’s attempts to intervene and change the fate of this little creature.
Their story drew strong reactions and queries from the audience.
Vital ammunition for animal lovers, for sure!
The reading was followed by an interactive session on story
writing, and how to build a ‘character’ or ‘characters’ for a story. Kids were asked to think about a person or animal that evoked a
certain memory, and build a new character with attributes/qualities that they admired or disliked!
Aunty Neluka also discussed the finer points of writing and the need to use the power of ‘one’s
imagination.’
Then there was a colourful
bookmark handcraft to do, which had interesting facts on monkeys,
to give the kids an insight into
Sri Lanka’s rich wildlife.
The concentration game, with plenty of bang, bangs and shootings gave kids an additional incentive to improve their focusing and
concentrating skills. “A must have skill for budding writers,’’ according to Aunty Neluka.
The special invitees, the
winners of the Cinnamon Grand’s Environment Day Poetry Competition, were also there to receive their prizes from Aunty Neluka. She was given the task of going through the large number of entries to select the winners who got an opportunity to get invaluable feedback from Aunty Neluka, on ways to further improve their
writing skills!
Each kid was given a copy of ‘Milk Rice’, courtesy of Cinnamon Grand, in keeping with Nuga Gama’s ethos of inculcating a sense of pride and appreciation for our culture, heritage and nature amongst our younger generation.
Plenty of snacks and prizes brought to an end a fun-filled
afternoon of reading and learning for the forty kids who opted to exchange the lure of the TV and cartoons
(even for a matter of two hours!) for an enticing experience under the
200-year-old Banyan Tree! |
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