Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean went on a whirlwind book tour and I got the chance to join Kirsty Murray, Isobelle Carmody and Samhita Arni on the Bangalore leg.
We kicked off on Sunday, 16 November, at the Oxford Bookstore, where the book was—literally—launched at our Bangalore audience. There were about a dozen children, plus a number of interested grown-ups. (Full disclosure: some of them had been emotionally blackmailed to be there.) There was masala tea, cookies and samosas too.
On the Monday, we set off to Inventure Academy for a session with young teenagers. This was a fantastic group, with a number of readers and writers among them. They were keen and asked some interesting questions as well. The afternoon session was at Christ University, where the audience was a few dozen graduate students. The discussion was slightly more serious, as we talked about gender, about writing, about society.
Tuesday saw us heading off towards Yelahanka to Aditi School, where we had a session with a group of class 8 students. This was one of the best groups we interacted with. The kids were responsive, enthusiastic and intelligent, full of questions and answers.
Next, we headed to Sristi School of Art, Design and Technology to speak to a group of young art and design students working on a project where they’ve been developing narratives aimed at children. We spoke about how our book came about, about gender and feminism. Later on, the students presented their own projects as well.
Apart from Bangalore, there was ample sky-eating and ocean-drinking in Delhi and Kolkata as well. Waiting for some photos to come my way.
~PD