On August 25, while people whined about the scorching heat, we were perspiring from a different kind of heat. Maria Montessori, nearly a century ago, had said, “Play is the work of the child.” But today, countless play schools surround our neighbourhoods that have ruined the true spirit of play. It is with this spirit that the 6th edition of Jumpstart Festival was animated.

This festival, designed especially for writers, illustrators, designers, artists, educators, publishers, booksellers, and story tellers, took off with an energizing address by Nury Vittachi, the author of “The Feng Shui Detective”, a series of novels, and founder of the Asia Literary Review, and the Man Asian Literary Prize. Nury spoke about the importance of children’s content creators in today’s time. “From Harry Potter to The Hunger Games, and now The Fault in Our Stars, it’s a proof that children’s literature underlies and dominates the whole entertainment industry,” he said.

The sessions that followed “PLAYWRITE” – the idea of play in children’s books and “PLAYSCHOOL – Play in and as Pedagogy” flowed seamlessly.

Writer and illustrator of children’s books, Sophie Benini Pietromarchi, began the session with a dream and the importance of it, along with playing. She encouraged everyone to play with children, go on a treasure hunt, and collect all the treasures that can be used to create magic on a page.

“Ask yourself if your design allows your reader to experience the book. The process of creating a children’s book,” she shared, “is not simple but rather a going back to the essentials. The process of illustration allows you to be universal at another level. And as a creator, you have a second chance at being a child.” After Sophie, Asha Nehemiah, a popular author with children of all age groups, said, “Children don’t need an invitation to play, they simply do, and in the most unusual ways.” She spoke about how she uses the simple and seemingly ordinary things or instances to weave stories. And the way her books sell, it’s a proof that children don’t just accept but they embrace the magic in her stories! She concluded her presentation by saying, “When children engage playfully, noisily and happily with stories, pictures and words, don’t just encourage them, join them”.

Nury Vittachi, back on this panel, spoke about harnessing a child’s creativity, and shared the fabulous story of how “Mr. Edward Teddy Bear” became Winnie the Pooh, and just in case you didn’t know, it was the writer’s child who came up with it! “The way humour works with children and an adult is very different,” he said. How can we learn to play again as adults? How do we stop being adults and think like children? Why do we want our children to grow up so fast? Do we give our children enough space to be creative? Do we impose moral truths on children? All these questions and more were thrown to the audience by Nury.

The second session called “Playschool: Play in and as Pedagogy” began with Amukta Mahapatra, who is currently involved in a committee that is reviewing ‘Activity Based Learning and its variations’ in seven states of India. She spoke about the natural instinct that all human beings possess – to explore. But very often, adults use ‘play’ patronizingly with children and this defeats the purpose, harming the children’s natural instinct. She further said, “Children take play very seriously, but, our education system allows them for very little play and exploring. A child’s natural tendencies are suppressed, and learning is imposed on children via outdated models. And there is a need for more awareness, so that we allow children to live more spontaneously.”

E.K. Shaji of Jodo Gyan, teaches children to love math. And guess what? He seemed perfectly happy, doing what he does. “We seldom see a math teacher smile!” he said. He demonstrated simple, yet effective ways to teach children how to grasp mathematical concepts, guided by basic principles, such as, touch, feel, and converse. He even suggested that teachers should base their activities on subjects that are close to the children. “Whatever we do with children, it should connect with their lives, and they should feel like they are playing. Use the medium of stories and theatre, and I assure you that there will be a remarkable shift in the children’s understanding of math”, he concluded.

Sharing her experiences with books and children, Sujata Noronha of the Bookworm Trust in Goa shared that children need to have a concrete relationship with books, and an aural relationship with words. Unfortunately, many schools in the country do not allow either to flourish. She also spoke about the difficulty to find books that relate to children’s contexts in India, books that spoke about death and anger. She ended her presentation with a question that got us thinking, “Are we creating spaces for children to use their minds?”

In the second half of the day, Anshumani Ruddra, an author, game designer and screenwriter based in Bangalore, got the afternoon going, taking us into the wired world of gaming – deciphering and unravelling it for all of us. He then involved the audience by playing, ‘rock, paper, scissors’ to judge a battle between the two teams “crusaders of chaos” and “knights of order”!

Anshumani Ruddra,  an author, game designer and screenwriter

This was followed by the launch of the ‘Vani Foundation Fellowship for Writers and Illustrators’, and the announcement of the first fellow – Lavanya Karthik, an illustrator.

The final session of the day was on trans-media storytelling, tilted ‘Playpen’. The speakers included Jiggy George of Dream Theatre, Ralph Möllers, a big name in the publishing industry, and Padmini Ray Murray, of Wikimedia, UK. While Padmini talked about how to think about transmedia and its components – form, content, story and character, to better understand the audience, Ralph suggested that multimedia is not the end of the book, instead when content works, it ends up creating new markets. “You must look at new projects from the perspective of failure”, he concluded. Jiggy George ended the discussion on a good note, “The book never goes away. Everything else is an extension!”

Isn’t that good news?