Week 05/2026
26th Jan to 1 Feb 2026 (Mon to Sunday)
26th Jan - chutti, B was at home. We mostly talked about children’s literature, the idea of starting a children’s lit magazine.
one friend already tried this project before but she couldn’t take it further.
This idea is a long overdue project which me and B have discussed many times. Last time when H came, me, H and R also discussed the same idea and fixed the date that we need to publish it in May 2026. But after that both of them got busy and I, as a super enthusiastic person, couldn’t resist involving B in it and starting to work on it.
I started taking steps without waiting for R to respond, and also began bombarding his WhatsApp with lots of ideas—I wanted him in this journey at that moment. Because of this move, maybe my speed and rapid prototyping attitude, R didn’t appreciate the approach, so he messaged that he doesn’t want to be involved. He’ll be back in Ahmedabad on the 7th. H is also busy. So now I’m thinking, let me go ahead with whoever is ready to work with me right now. I cannot wait until everyone’s priority aligns with mine. I really respect them and will involve them, collaborate with them whenever they’re ready. Until that time, I’ll work on whatever I can. This complication made me really sad, almost like a breakup. But it is okay, it happens. I am learning how to collaborate with clear communication.
So me and B started—started curating stuff, started writing new stuff, translation, finding illustrators and more.
This is a dream project for both of us. I got a small grant from Sudha Mahesh Educational Grant for starting library activities + starting a children’s lit magazine.
This grant will help us pay some honorarium to illustrators and printing costs for 1k copies. It is a good start I think. We are planning to do two issues per year—one in summer vacation and one in Diwali vacation.
27th to 30th Jan - mostly office work
31st and 1st -
Saturday I was at home only, it was a working day for Nidhi. I did some curation work for the magazine.
Sunday morning Nachiket (Nidhi’s APU batchmate, currently working in APF) visited us. He is currently working in Badmer and he was traveling to Bhopal, so he stopped by our place.
In the afternoon B came and we worked on the magazine, had lunch together. In the evening four of us went to Manek Chowk to have dinner.
It was a fun - sad - hopeful week.
Manek Chowk’s food was not that great. We ate pav bhaji, sandwich, jamun shot, chaat. Jamun shot and sandwich were nice… didn’t like the pav bhaji because of too much masala.
Major update of the week is - how can we work with people on passion projects? With transparency, collaboration, non-violence, democracy…?
I also reflected on my actions that honestly why I am doing this project? is it fame ? is it validation? is it contribution to children literature ? is it need as an educator? I think partly everything. This is also escape for me from deep sadness - stress because of home conflicts. Yes I want validation after 13 years of work, Yes I need little bit of fame.
- I really like collaborating with artists, writers, illustrators.
- I like writing and experimenting with mediums
- I feel the need of good children lit in Gujarati, no body is creating it so we will create and use it in classroom.
- I see this project as an opportunity to engage with children from different schools, learning centers, book fairs and more. Feel loved by friends, be part of the community. That helps, helps to not get burned out in this highly difficult sector.
