4th edition of storytelling festival held at Mumbai's Byculla zoo

MUMBAI: Last week, the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Vanaspati Udyan (Ranibaugh) and zoo at Byculla saw the fourth edition of a storytelling festival-- Story Express -- being held at its premises. It was also the first time that the event was being held after Covid pandemic.
Story express is an initiative to support education using storytelling as a tool which is working exclusively for the lesser privileged children. For the same, 320 students from nine different NGO's between age group of 10-14 years induldged in outdoor sessions of storytelling, art, poetry and other fun activities. Started in 2018 it was held over three years in collaboration with Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Ranibaug in Byculla. The theme of the festival this year was zoo stories.
Students even sang poetry has storytelling sessions with puppets and even learned basics of animation along with watching a featured animation film. All students were gifted with children's book and a lot of books were even donated to school libraries from organisations.
A teacher of Seva Sadan school said, "We are very thankful of such organisations coming forward & helping students to experience better learning."
Shubham Mistry one of the students said, "It was a very unique and wonderful experience of outdoor story telling combined with fun activities. I enjoyed a lot watching animals in zoo as it's my first time I've been here."
Reena Agarwal, co founder of Akshara Foundation said, "We annually organise such events for the betterment of underprivileged students. We have even organised such events at NGOs but, such events gives students a unique experience & encourages them to study."
The initiative was co-founded in the year 2016 by the owner of Akshara Children’s Library Radhika Kundalia along with Agrawal in collaboration with Akshara Foundation and Wrapper India.