‘A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.’ 
—  Charlie and the Great 

Glass Elevator 

When kids come together, this nonsensical world becomes all the more lively. In order to acquaint the city’s little ones with the genius of Roald Dahl, Think Arts and Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet (Kalam) celebrated the author’s 100th birthday along with Story at the Elgin Road bookstore. 

On the menu were games, fun activities, storytelling sessions and yummy cupcakes. From pinning a beard on Mr. Twit of The Twits, getting temporary tattoos of different Dahl characters to letting their imagination run wild by sketching fictional characters from his stories, the “kiddles” had a “whoopsy-splunkers” time on September 13. What’s more, Team Kalam also announced something for li’l bookworms!

KIDDIE LIT MEET @KALAM

I am quite overwhelmed with the response today. On this happy occasion, I’d like to announce a Children’s Literary Meet, which will take place a few days prior to the Kolkata Literary Meet in January 2017. We are planning to form a children’s board of advisers. Not only do we plan to have workshops, sessions and performances during the two-day children’s meet, we plan to have something for children during the main literary meet as well.

— Malavika Banerjee, 
director, Kolkata Literary Meet

When actor-writer Jayant Kripalani asked the young ’uns what they love doing most, eating chocolate and ice cream, and watching television were the top answers. So Kripalani read out Dahl’s poem, Television, where he says “just don’t install/The idiotic thing at all.” To the delight of the young readers, Kripalani also read out Crocodile.

Krishika Punjabi is crazy about Roald Dahl, and what better occasion to celebrate her love than his 100th birthday? “I couldn’t imagine returning home without buying one of his books. My pick was James and the Giant Peach. There’s a lot of humour in his stories, Matilda is my favourite,” said the Class III student of Modern High School for Girls.

Text: Tanisha Bagchi
Pictures: Rashbehari Das