Bookworm featured in OHeraldO for NoMoZo

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Niju Mohan

When cyclists, skaters ruled the street

PANJIM: Avid walkers, cyclists and children on skates made the best of the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg on the entire Campal stretch on Sunday morning for a few hours during the No- Motorised Zone ( Nomozo) celebration that lasted from 9.30 am to 12 noon.

It was an initiative of Aamchi Panaji to educate people on the advantages of having no cars and buses on the road once in a while.

Volunteers of Aamchi Panaji wearing Nomozo T- shirts worked hand- in- hand with the police and other authorities to ensure the event went on without any problem.

Architect Talullah D’Silva, who conceptualized the idea, said the D B Marg was closed for traffic from 9.30 am to 12 noon. “ We sent our volunteers to assist the police in keeping traffic at bay on this road. We did this because many people were not aware of the closure. We managed to get the permission for the Nomozo only on Friday,” she mentioned.

The event saw artist Harshada Kerkar put up a work of art made out of natural material on the road at Campal near the Forest Department. Taleigao- based Bookworm Library organized a story- telling session.

The Nomozo gave a big boost to the Konkan Fruit Fest on its concluding day. A volunteer at the fest said the stalls received a good number of people on account of the Nomozo celebration.

Ward corporator Kabir Pinto Makhija said Nomozo was a good initiative in a long time. We need something like this happening more often, but it has to be advertised well, he observed.

Some of the citizens who participated in the event said it was difficult controlling their children who were cycling and skating. “ It was excitement and a sense of adventure to ride and skate on a street which otherwise is full of vehicles,” they stated.

A senior citizen remarked why do we need cars and buses on Sunday? “ They all can give their engine a rest and allow us to live,” he added.

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Updating Literacy Knowledge: beyond the abc of writing

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Niju Mohan

A participatory workshop to understand how knowledge is organised in written texts, looking at the various forms of presenting knowledge visually in writing. The goal is to work with educators and use this exploration to sensitise selves about the varying contextual needs of literacy knowledge and education. The workshop focuses on how literacy is concerned with showing people different organisations of Knowledge and how to interact with them.

Who Can Attend: Educators and people who work with literacy .

Where: Bookworm, Taleigao Goa

When: Friday June 1^st

Time: 10.00 am – 5.00 pm ( Please carry packed lunch or avail of take away service) Tea/Coffee available.

Fee: Rs. 200/-

Facilitator: Dr. Lynn Mario T de Souza – Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Call: 9823222665 to register or for more details.

Bookworm on the streets – literally

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Niju Mohan

Sunday 13^th May, Bookworm’s Mobile Library was on D.B Marg, Panaji, participating in a civic moment to garner No Motorized Zones (NoMoZo) for citizens.

The team at Bookworm loaded the van with books for all ages, mats, easels, puppets, art material, stories and readers and hit the street.

Sunday morning, beneath the canopy of the glorious, lush, comforting rain trees, children and adults read, listened, talked to each other and explored books.

A Cholta Cholta Treasure Hunt was organised to explore the Campal area with Pritha Sardessai. Flowers and leaves offered by the rain trees was used to create stunning art with Harshada Kerkar and Elaine and Niquita read stories and engineered story thinking activities all morning.

Krystal, Sujata and Niju had fun doing everything, on a NoMoZo street.

For more photos, visits our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bookwormgoa

Bookworm with NoMoZo featured in Navhind Times Buzz 12th May 2012

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Niju Mohan

Panaji is going to witness a unique citizen’s initiative called NoMoZo (Non-Motorized Zone), which will make its debut on Sunday, May 13 between 9 a.m. to 12 noon on a stretch of road between Kala Academy and 2 Signal Training Centre.

A non-motorized zone is a designated length of road where adults, children, senior citizens and differently abled people can walk freely, cycle, jog, roller skate, exercise, play, explore and meet fellow citizens. Ideated by an enthusiastic group of citizens called Aamchi Panaji working as a team with Corporation of the City of Panaji, it addresses the complex issue of traffic congestion and how all our city streets are piling up with a burgeoning number of private cars and other vehicles.

It seeks to educate citizens that the solution lies not in widening roads to accommodate more cars but to replace every 30 cars with a city bus, dedicated cycle lanes and pedestrian paths. Freeing the streets of private vehicles predominantly cars, NoMoZo will allow people to move freely, decrease vehicular congestion, lower pollution caused by emissions, improve health and sustain urban mobility. Many groups have extended support and will be participating at NoMoZo.

The Sunday Evening Quiz Club will have a quiz session while Bookworm Children’s Library will conduct a treasure hunt, book reading session and an interesting art session with Harshada Kerkar. All these activities have been planned on the side lanes parallel to the main thoroughfare which will be exclusively used by pedestrians, cyclists and roller skaters. To experience a car-free street, simply walk or cycle to the Kala Academy Junction on DB Marg. For residents or visitors from the outskirts of the city or outside, you could park at the Parade Grounds, Kala Academy parking lot or the Betim Ferry Point. Citizen volunteers and supporters of this initiative will be working as a team with the Traffic Cell Panaji to help diversions in traffic between 2 Signal Training Junction and the Kala Academy Junction. So shop and wrap up all your personal chores early Sunday morning and keep your date with NoMoZo.

Bookworm at NoMoZo

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Niju Mohan

While Panjim is kicking the driving habit at NoMoZo, Bookworm is calling all readers to bring their reading habit to the streets. So join us for “Cholta Cholta Treasure Hunt” we’ll see Panjim as we never have before. And while we’re at it, we’ll show you how we’ve already taken reading to the streets with our Mobile Outreach Program (MOP). Also join Harshada Kerkar who supports “Art that Grows”and participate in public art installation.

May 2012 Calendar

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Niju Mohan

Please click to open in bigger size

May events at Bookworm. Please pass the Calendar and the word around. We need a buzz to stay alive:-) and we need kids and parents to come through those doors!

Summer Workshops of 2012

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Niju Mohan

April 2012, Bookworm organised workshops at the new library premises all month of April.

Children signed up to learn to cook and bake with Anita Martins-Pereira and Elaine Mendonsa.

Bookworm positions Cooking and Baking as at the Library is one of the most favoured learning activities for its multi-sensory and integrated curricular dimensions.

Cooking and baking makes specific demands on reading in sequence and decoding short sentence, exposes young chefs to new vocabulary. Recipes make demand on functional math skills for measuring and approximations, use of science to understand how changes matter and what the various processes that are used for cooking are. Cooking and baking links food to cultures and peoples and allow young children to get a ‘tactile’ sense of how we are influenced through food. But the most positive enabler is that young people make their own food, being actively involved at every level and stage of the process and take some samples home to savour and enjoy with a recipe to do this again and again.

Wordsmith:

Using words and images to express ideas was the main theme of this workshop.

Story Writing: What makes a good story, what are the parts of a story, who decides what stays in a story and what not, what is a character and what is a setting, are conclusions necessary, can a story be connected to my life and can I fun crafting a story?

Participants were facilitated by a host of writers, Victor Rangel Ribeiro, Salil Chaturvedi, Anniruddha Sen Gupta, Milan Khanolkar, Salil Konkar and Jose Lourenco who visited the workshop to interact and support creative writing with the kids.

Clay Animation Workshop:

Children worked with Salil Konkar and Milan Khankolkar and made a short film using clay to craft characters, called The Wizard and the Green Dragon which you can view here.

Tribal Motifs in Art and Craft:

Children used traditional motifs from Warli, Madhubani and Gond Art to create objects that they crafted in fabric, paper, wood and foam.

Language Story Art workshop by Bookworm for Sir Ratan Tata Trust partners

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Niju Mohan

Bookworm with support of Sir Ratan Tata Trust organised a workshop on Language – Story – Art at Caritas Hall, St.Inez with 32 educators from different parts of India who work in the area of emergent literacy. The workshop was from 17th April – 21st April, 2012.

The workshop was resourced by Milan Khanolkar and Roshan Sahi, both art educators. Participants from sites in Ajmer, Udaipur, Bhopal, Yadgir, Sonale and Nandurbar explored, experienced and reflected on issues of language and identity, language and expression and language and exploration. The workshop also focused on the different forms of language and mediums of expression that adults and children use to share understanding and learning. It is expected that an understanding of the structure, nature and purpose of language will help inform the pathways in which educators bring children to literacy and the ways in which gaps between home and school language can be bridged. The form of the story was explored as a medium of bringing together inner and out worlds, learning about structure and Standard and connecting ideas.

Excerpts from March Book Talk – Tiger’s Wife

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Niju Mohan

On Booktalk, we read Tea Obreht’s Tiger’s Wife in the month of March. This tale of a grandfather and a granddaughter set against the ever shifting contours of the Balkans is as much a history of a region as also a poignant portrayal of a changing relationship. The enigmatic title eludes and teases us throughout the story. A work of magic realism at some level, everything in the story transcends time and space and seems to become a symbol for so much more.

In our attempt to understand the book better, everyone’s ideas and opinions were shared on the booktalk forum. Here are some excerpts which reflect our changing moods and opinions as we progressed through the story:
SANDHYA
I am also enjoying The Tiger’s Wife… some bits more than others. But yes, as you say, there is a fluidity about the writing, and I love the descriptions. It’s not spectacular or even dramatic, nor is it ‘simple’ … I know I am not being particularly articulate, but there is a sense of the mood that used to be in some Russian novels…
I am struck by the way the story of the tiger is juxtaposed, and the way The Jungle Book comes to enjoy centre stage… such a sense of connections, isn’t there?

But the story of the deathless man is intriguing. Is he real? Is he a symbol of unreality amidst the reality of a crumbling nation, divided against itself, a sort of escape route…?
Questions, questions…. but I love the descriptions. She is superb with the delicate and detailed way she brings scenes alive. The little boy chasing into the night to go into the smoking room, the way she describes how he puts out his hand to feel the tiger’s rough hairs… brilliant…

SUJATA
There is something in this book; it is still elusive to me. Tea is
brilliant in her ‘never endings’ for now. I have so many questions and Zora
intrigues me.
I like grandfather, I want to know more.

NANDITA
Sorry, I have bad news to report. I am not enjoying the book. I think
that a few bits (so far) are well written (like Natalia’s and
grandfather’s walk through the night, her visit to Zdrevkov) but for
the most part, I find it dreary and disjointed – it makes me feel too
tired to look for hidden meanings Really struggling to complete it
and have just crossed Chap 5. I do hope I begin to find some joy,
purpose and meaning in my reading but am committed to keep moving on
with heart steeled.

DEEPAK
Hi have kept silent as I had read the book earlier. Did not want my comments to colour one’s views. But reading Nandita’s comments makes me surmount my diffidence. I too was distinctly underwhelmed by the book. I put it down to my belonging to the wrong gender or my low browness.
Though listening to other comments did encourage me to attempt to give it another try.

KAREN
I finished it yesterday but can’t say I didn’t enjoy it – I did at some
levels. There was a lot I didn’t ‘get’ – like the point of some of the
stories within the story. What I did like was the setting – war, the breakup
of Yugoslavia. It’s the first time I’ve read a novel set in the Balkans and
it made me think how similar we are.folk lore.superstitions.religion.division.

ANITA
I just reread parts of the book and it’s mindblowing-loved the whole
theme of consciousness-sorry folks am into esoteric and stuff like
conscience-conscious et al.. so bear with me like darisa! I think Tea
O is brilliant as she takes the strands from all over and weaves in
the magic-of all of us linking to the generation before our parents!!

AJITH
I’ve finished reading The Tiger’s Wife and I loved it. I was absolutely enchanted by the narratives of memory and perception which Obreht manipulates to successfully justify the ‘magic realism’ in the book. It was the loose ends which I loved the most because I saw it as her mastery to tell the reader the whole truth but not the
absolute.

Cholta Cholta Heritage Week

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Niju Mohan

Cholta Cholta Heritage Week from 9th April to 15th April 2012 for ages 9 and above. Fee Rs. 1000/- only.

We have 4 walks in place for you.

Walk 1: Saluting Statues (9th April – 4:30pm to 6:30pm) – Observer various statues from GPO to Old Secretariat.

Walk 2: Worship Walk (11th April – 4:30pm to 6:30pm) – Learn about symbols and colours of different religions as you walk from Mahalaxmi Temple to Panjim Church.

Walk 3: Heritage Hunt (13th April – 4:30pm to 6:30pm) – Spot the many elements of Goan Architecture in a walk around the Latin Quarter of Fontainhas.

Walk 4: Worship Walk (15th April – 8:00am to 10:00pm) – Stroll along the Campal Promenade to discover different trees and enjoy breakfast under a shady rain tree.

For registration contact our office at 2451233 or 9823222665.

Bookworm Goa

The place where children learn to love books

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