On World Book Day, children urged to read
LUCKNOW: In this era of tablets and smartphones, children are getting less interested in reading books. On World Book Day on Saturday, the state capital witnessed an activity aimed at making children read books. At Shri Ramswaroop Memorial Public School, children vowed to start with one book on this day. The event was chaired by Lucknow chronicler Yogesh Praveen, who was the chief guest on the occasion.
Praveen exhorted children to work on their linguistic skills saying that as command over language was the key to success. Narrating various anecdotes from the lives of Nawabs of Awadh, he told the students that the ‘tehzeeb’ (culture) and ‘zubaan’ (language) made Lucknow different from others. There were several other events such as skits, elocutions and role plays for students. Principal SN Singh and junior principal Rishi Raj Shanker emphasised the importance of books.
Meanwhile, to celebrate the love for reading and joy of giving, Telenor India organised a book collection drive on World Book Day. The campaign, ‘Book for Smiles’, was launched in partnership with ‘Food 4 Thought Foundation’ and encouraged the employees to support the cause by donating books. Around 10000 books were collected across Telenor’s six circles. These books will help the non-profit organisation working to bring social change through books.
The foundation will also open 25 libraries in schools, communities and hospitals across India in the coming 100 days. KC Narendran, circle business head, UP East (Telenor India), said when the school dropout rate was high and just one-third of the population was having access to books, it was important to encourage the habit of reading and make good books available to the unprivileged.”