Students attend an interactive session by writer Mitra Phukan at Delhi Public School

June 15: Fretting over how to keep your children occupied over the long hot summer afternoons?

If you wish to keep your children away from too many hours of television and steer them towards a fruitful hobby, an exciting option is coming your way.

Anwesha, a non-government organisation, has lined up several exciting events, including a summer reading book fair, which it calls a “creative fund” for schoochildren.

The president of the NGO, Paresh Malakar, said since children are generally at a loss regarding what to do during the vacation and on how to spend their days having fun and learning something in the process.

This results in an excessive viewing of television, particularly the entertainment channels and less of meaningful activities.

He said the problem was even more acute for those children whose parents go out to work and leave them alone at home.

“The summer reading book fair has been designed in a way to entertain the children through book readings and other creative events. The first two-day long summer reading book fair at Delhi Public School was a grand success. Now we are planning big and have tied up with several leading schools to organise more such events,” Malakar said.

The second summer reading book fair will be organised at Sarala Birla Gyanjyoti School from June 17 to 26.

The third fair is scheduled to be held at Maharishi Vidya Mandir from June 23.

More schools will be covered next month, after the summer vacations for the schools under the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, start from July 1.

“Besides selling some of the best and latest books that are a must read for schoolchildren, we will also organise other events like a creative writing session, quiz, extempore speech, cultural programmes and interactions with eminent writers on current issues concerning children and youths,” he said.

Arup Kumar Dutta, internationally acclaimed writer, popularly known as the Enid Blyton of India, will inaugurate the book fair at Sarala Birla Gyanjyoti School.

He will also interact with the children to share his thoughts and feelings about his creations like The Unicornis, Hammer Blow, The Kaziranga Trail and The Blind Witness.

Established in 1989, Anwesha aims at promoting the habit of reading books in the entire region through various literary activities.

Every year, the NGO organises more than 100 community and school book fairs in various parts of the region.

The organisation is known to be the pioneer in holding children’s book fairs to inculcate the reading habit among children.