A panel from The Right Way School. Illustration Courtesy/Pankaj Saikia

For children’s author Reshma Thapa-Gurung, her latest book Aarna and Iris’s Big Task (Pratham Books) was a result of the collaborative exchange of ideas between her and the publishers. Thapa-Gurung creates a world where students are encouraged to engage in creative experiences and forge new friendships. Two girls, Aarna and Iris, guide the new kid Norgay around various classes on his first day. The author uses the five senses as a navigational tool as Norgay begins to settle in. “Aarna is my daughter’s name, and she has two cousins who are very close. The characters, therefore, are based on the three of them. The setting is inspired by the school I taught at for 14 years,” she shares.

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While Minwalla remained in one school all her life, Thapa-Gurung changed schools a few times.  The biggest anxiety for a new student, she believes, is being unfamiliar with the surroundings. Everything seems foreign at first. “How does one make friends?” and “Are they going to exclude me?” are critical challenges at that age. Minwalla agrees and furthers it by stating that these concerns don’t completely die down. They remain with us when we enter spaces alien to us as adults too.

Shabnam Minwalla  and Reshma Thapa-Gurung

As a teacher, Thapa-Gurung observed that few kids were naturally welcoming. If someone new came along, she says, the teachers had to ensure that they didn’t feel out of place. “These are social skills that kids need to be taught. I don’t think it comes naturally to most of us [as children].” For new kids with a distinct personality, Minwalla says that it is worth taking a chance at being different. “When you are different, however much you try to fit in, sometimes, it doesn’t work. When you are yourself, you never know when others [join in and] go along with you,” she concludes.

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