Schoolchildren thronged Oxford Junior bookstore for the launch of Storytellers on April 29. Veteran singer Usha Uthup’s presence jazzed up the event and brought out the creative best in the students.
Published by Orient Longman, Storytellers is a collection of more than 50 short stories compiled by BookBox. The compilation comprises two books and a CD that includes puzzles and quizzes. It is available in several languages.
The evening started with students from Apeejay School and Loretto House reading out stories from the collection.
An impressed Uthup claimed that she loved telling stories too. She also regaled the audience by mimicking her two grandchildren reciting nursery rhymes. The singer has opened a school in Cochin where she ensures that stories are read out to children in their mother tongue.
“People say I sing much better than I talk but music is not really my forte. It is communication. My singing teacher in school always threw me out of the class because I have a base voice,” confessed the singer to an amused audience.
And to prove her teacher wrong, Uthup brought the house down with songs like This Little Penny and her evergreen, Kolkata, Kolkata, amra tomari Kolkata, occasionally replacing ‘Kolkata’ with ‘Knight Riders.’ She even did the trademark Hare Ram Hare Krishna dance movement from the movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa. The audience could not stop cheering as she wrapped up her performance with the song Om Shanti Om.
A cake, in the shape of a book, was cut by Uthup and distributed among the students.
“There is no substitute for books. Television can never take the place of reading. I want my message to reach out to both children and their parents,” she told Young Metro.
Nandini Rao, director of Orient Longman, had come down from Hyderabad for the occasion. She said that given Uthup’s great rapport with children, “she was the right person to launch the book.”
Siblings Roshan and Atharva Rana Baig could not stop gushing after the event. They claimed books were their best friends and this musical launch had made their day. No wonder they were one of the first buyers of Storytellers.
Neil David, manager of Orient Longman said: “Storytellers has got an overwhelming response in south India and Mumbai. We will bring it out in more languages to reach out to a larger section of students. We want to catch students young and inculcate the habit of reading in them.”
Somrita Ganguly
Calcutta Girls’ High School
