The day I learnt creative writing from 50 teachers!

"Imagine a room with 100 windows and a person peeping in through each window. Within the room is an object of which only one view/face is visible from a window. What should the observers do to view the object in its entirety?"

Thus began the session, nudging the participants to ponder over the scenario, and wondering what has it got to do with creative writing. "Isn't trying to look at the process of creative writing like this scenario? You are trying to grasp the entire view of some thing you may or may not have even a glimpse of. How can this be done without shattering the windows? The easiest way to do this is to move from the window to within the room; from being an observer to a participant. This workshop is aimed at facilitating the shift!"

The workshop held on 2nd February at D.G. Ruparel College, was organised by the multi-lingual student writers' group अkshaर.


From exploring the concept of creativity to creative writing, the session progressed forth by focusing on the fundamentals of the writing process. The relation between senses (hearing and sight), meaning, and words was explored through individual activities, followed by discussion.



The workshop progressed through interspersed interaction with participants on the process of creative writing. "How to deal with the writer's block" was one segment which all the participants thoroughly seem to have enjoyed.



The group activity designed around 'Navrasas - the nine emotions' acted as a good culminating point to all the previous segments.



The time after certificate distribution and vote of thanks, turned into a memorable evening. One of the students, Mrunmayee Damle presented a song by whistelling with such perfection that it was really mesmerizing! Students buying copies of my novella, The Last Nomad, turned into an unplanned book signing event. Another highlight of this workshop was receiving the handmade bookmarks and the pop-up greeting card which had snaps of my Ruparel years.


The patience of students happily sitting through the extended hour and participating enthusiastically was a good feedback in this second session on Creative Writing. After analyzing students' feedback from the survey form, I am working on developing specialized sessions on creative writing.

Seeing the blooming Aboli/Crossandra plant every morning, which was given during the inaugration of the workshop, will always remind me of this day where I learnt from 50 teachers at the same time.







- The Last Nomad

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