For the first time ever, International Literacy Day was celebrated on campus. Students had the opportunity to learn about the advancement in scriptures and writings which has taken place over thousands of years.
Students from Government Primary School, Mussoorie were also invited to this event. The library staff organised a couple of educational activities for them.
Students had the opportunity to write with feathers dipped in ink and were able to engrave ancient scriptures in clay just like they were originally engraved on stone.
At the end of the day, Ms. Madhu Bhargava, Head Librarian, had students write reflections. Most of them mentioned that they learned something new and were amazed to see the evolution of writing tools.
The library staff, along with Mr. Nanda Kumar, Visual Arts Head of Department, worked for two weeks to produce an imitation of the real scriptures which were on display during the exhibition.
The writing tools have evolved over the years and have become more intricate.
Ms. Bhargava said that after attending an exhibition held by the British Museum on “the evolution of tablets, [she] was inspired” to do something similar.
The exhibition’s main purpose was to teach students about human growth and improvements.
“We want our students to think about what they can do in this modern age to create harmony and balance since there are so many languages being spoken in this world,” Mrs. Subhashini Timothy, librarian, said.
The year 2019 has been proclaimed as “The Year of Indigenous Languages” by the United Nations, hoping for the youth to be aware of the older languages of the world. Ms. Bhargava wanted the students to understand this and experience what writing was like around 2000 years ago.
Photos by Tanvi Garg and Dhrubhagat Singh.
Sanaya Mehta contributed to this article.
Edited by Archita Aggarwal.
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