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Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, October 23
Being a book fairy means making people believe in magic, in this case, magic of reading a book. “A book has the capability to change our lives with a single sentence, an idea or a story. Having grown up reading books all my life since my father ran a bookstore, becoming a book fairy was natural progression for me,” shared Cordelia Oxley. The Chief Book Fairy, Oxley, was among the founder volunteers of the now famous Book Fairy project, an international NGO based in London dedicated to inculcate the habit of reading in people over the world. Cordelia was in Amritsar to start a reading programme and did a reading session at the Shree Vinayak Nishulk Paathshala, a school run for underprivileged.
Started in 2017, the Book Fairy has been supported by Hollywood actor Emma Watson. Cordelia, who is a marketing professional, says the concept is to help everyone get access to books/literature. “All the allied book fairies drop off books at random places like cafes and restaurants, and the books are then for just about anyone to find, pick up, read, enjoy, and then to pass on to others, thus creating a chain of spreading books. We have over 9,000 volunteers world over now and 126 assigned Book Fairies, including four guys. In India, we have 16 book fairies working and 200 volunteer network.”
The most interesting part is that some of the books they dropped off have made their way back to them. “Once a book travelled from London to France, then Spain, Australia and back to London. It had all those little notes left by the different readers. It was amazing,” she said.
In India, the Book Fairy movement is more focused in promoting literature of all languages. “We have been working to circulate books in Hindi and local languages, initiated story telling sessions for children to engage them in reading. We are also including underprivileged kids, who otherwise do not have access to books,” said Shweta, who is a book fairy based in Bhubaneshawar.
The Majha House had invited Cordelia Oxley for a reading session with kids. Sharing many an interesting and hilarious anecdotes, she read out classic children book, The BFG. She also signed books for the children which the children treasured. Also present at the event were book fairies Nazi Puri, Prerna and Shweta from Amritsar, Delhi and Bhuwaneshwar respectively.
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