Khichidi
Written by Nikita Thakur (Originally a Pahadi story)
by students of Government Secondary School, Khun and curated by Ruchi Shah (LETS Project)
This book was done as a part of the art workshops that I was conducting at their school. This entire project was in
collaboration with the LETS - Learn English Through Stories project, IDC, IIT Bombay - funded by the TCTD centre.
While testingan English reading app in various regions we realized that there was a dearth of local Indian stories in schools. All the existing content was westernized in writing and accents. While facilitating the art workshops we thought of giving the children some time to write out stories they have heard at home, or stories which have been passed on verbally in tribal families,
What made this particular story unique was that it was written by a young pahadi girl and was entirely illustrated by 15 other students from the school. Through a series of workshops I worked with the children to help them create visuals, textures, patterns and characters for the storybook. Over time we built a small library of drawings which were more local and contextual given the fact that the children were drawing by observing things around them.
We worked on 3-4 different stories - each based in a different region of India.
I explored with Khaki paper for the cover page and a cutout to add an element of interest to the book,
given the fact that remote schools hardly get any innovatively printed or designed books.
The trees and fields of maize were drawn entirely by one student. Similarly the characters were drawn by another student.
Each student could pick something they were comfortable working with. Drawing and painting for this storybook was a not a mandatory requirement - we kept it open ended.
Khichidi, Udd'chidi, Kha'chidi, Fans'chidi...Khichidi!
