Story Chikkappa

During our work with the librarians of Karnataka, we discovered many stories waiting to be told. Stories of people who, on the surface, seemed unassuming but had great depth. Time after time, we kept hearing from them how the read-aloud program had made them feel seen, feel heard, feel valued by the community. Before the program, their duties were mostly clerical. The read-aloud program allowed them to discover that their work was not about record keeping. It was about igniting the joy of reading in children and in themselves.
One of the librarians we met in Kodagu put it so well, “The read-aloud programme has made me feel seen and valued by my community. Now I get invited to be seated on the stage at functions at the school and Gram Panchayats. Children voluntarily come and register themselves in the library. Community members are keen to know when the librarian is conducting community engagement activities for them and on what skill.”

Some of these stories were documented in our reports. Some on video. But we wanted to create something that would be a homage to these librarians. We approached Reshma Bachwani, a researcher and writer whom we had met through EkStep Foundation. She came up with this brilliant idea — why not write a children’s story about what the librarians experienced through the program. And thus, was born Story Chikkappa — a tale within a tale that describes the journey of Srinivas, a gram panchayat librarian in a fictional village in Karnataka who also discovered how reading aloud to children could transform him and his community. We loved the idea and decided to publish the story under EkStep’s Bachpan Manao Badhte Jao initiative.

The original story, written in English, was released by Smt Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta, the former Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayat Raj at an online event that was attended by nearly a hundred people.

On August 12, 2024, National Librarians’ Day, the Hon. Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Siddaramaiah launched the Kannada translation of the book at a grand event honoring the 6000 librarians of Karnataka.

The book has been published by Pratham Books on its StoryWeaver platform and has already been translated into Hindi, Gujarati, Telegu, Marathi, and Tanghkul. Here is the link to the story.