Professor teaches methods of non-violence, inter-racial understanding

After the 2008 terror strikes in Mumbai, writer and educationist Coomi Vevaina would often hear stories about traumatised children.

“Some of them would ask their mothers to close the doors so that terrorists don’t enter their homes; others would pick up toy guns and insist that if they ever come across a terrorist they would shoot him,” she says.

The professor, along with a friend, and some of her post-graduate students made a PowerPoint presentation that introduced schoolchildren to the idea of non-violent conflict resolution through stories set in everyday situations.

What materialised after these sessions were paintings, collages and stories by the children that were published in a book released by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King III in Mumbai in 2009.

Vevaina, who heads Mumbai university’s English department, has now come up with another idea — this time for inter-racial understanding and ecological conservation through storytelling.

To be held from October 7 to 13, the event will bring together teachers, writers, and storytellers from India as well as countries such as the US, the UK, Canada, Spain and Japan. “There will be 150 children participating from 15 schools across Mumbai,” she says.

There will be no training and no competition for the children who will be encouraged to create their own stories. The tales will then be staged or narrated for an audience. Actors Naseeruddin Shah and Dolly Thakore have agreed to participate in the event.