Dhauladhar Mela Fosters Reading, Unites Communities Away From Screens

Manara, an organisation based in Dharamshala, has jointly organised 'Dhauladhar Kahani Mela' in collaboration with few other organisations here in the North Indian hill town of Dharamshala. Apart from this festival, they have been holding read a loud sessions on every Sunday.

Sonia, programme associate of Manara, told ANI, "We are holding a reading festival which is named as Dhauladhar Reading Mela, which is jointly organised by four different organisations. We aim to develop reading habits among children apart from their academic studies. So we are telling them how to enjoy the pleasure of reading. People from the Indian and Tibetan communities are here and this way we are bringing our local communities together. The usage of mobile phones among children is getting very common problem these days and they usually come to us with such concerns and this festival also helps them to keep the children away from mobile phones... We have been holding read a loud sessions on every Sunday from the last one year and now parents can clearly see the improvements. The parents also tell us that it has created reading habits as well and the feedback from parents gives us a positive energy."

Phungstok Yangchen, a Tibetan woman, said, "I am here for the Dhauladhar festival and this is my second time to be here. I attended this festival last year also, so I came here with my two children and as a parent, I think this is a very important event because we as parents often complain that kids are often glued to their phones and screens so it could be a good way to keep them away from screens and then engage them in different activities. And this is a great way to engage them in reading books. Another important aspect for me is that it is a very good platform where two communities, Tibetan and Indian, come together and engage with each other and learn each other's culture."

Triaha, a primary school student, said, "I have come here to celebrate this festival and it is very interesting because adults and children are having fun and playing together or having many activities here together. I think if the people come to library or a community library like this or to any place where they can sit peacefully and read books so this will make them more creative..."

Shelly Takkar runs Manara community library and an open cultural space in Dharamsala. She has been working here for the last one and half year.

Shelly said, "We are doing it in collaboration with many other organisations including Nishtha Aavishkar, Tuna's Book Cafe, Dharamshala Animal Rescue and the idea really is to bring all of these organisation together and to engage children and elders with books and creative arts. They have been doing comic-making workshops and reading corners are here, poetry corners and with their own story creation and all of this really to bring the joy back to our lives and to celebrate the childhood. And it is also the year of compassion so we are using joy as a vehicle to be kinder to each other and to ourselves. I think it is imperative to begin to think and work seriously on alternatives to the mobile phones and screens because it has been proven by the research that more access to the screen or to the flicker of the screen shorten our attention and memory and moreover we are not able to build creative thinking skills and empathy and we are not able to relate to others anymore. So there is a danger to our mental health and personal health and then also our social fabric is very much in question because we are so much in transition with the increased use of screens."

- ANI