Amos @Bookaroo: "They have a potty built for me!"

Back from Bookaroo in New Delhi, thanks to an invitation made possible by the Bookaroo Trust, Pratham Books and Hachette India; and a travelling grant by the National Arts Council of S'pore. It was a three day event celebrating children's books and the magic of story-telling.
I was joined by Shamini Flint, both of us had a good time regaling kids with not-so-reverent tales from Singapore :)
My stay was made more colourful by the daily brush with death, negotiating the Delhi traffic in cars driven by closet F1 drivers. If a road has THREE lanes drawn into it, you can bet the drivers would be able to squeeze SIX cars into ONE road. What are lanes but mere suggestions? And get this, the seatbelts do not work! We sat in different cars each day, but either the belt doesn't budge, or a buckle is missing. I dread to tell my kids what I had to go through everyday. So that's exciting. What's also interesting... we stayed at a hotel supposedly run by ex-convicts. Hmmm... now how did that bit of gossip come about? On my first night, I flew into Delhi at 7am and by the time I checked into the hotel, showered and was about to get some sleep two hours later, I was woken up by an incessant pounding on the door that just wouldn't go away... Before I could answer it, I was horrified to see a hotel staff using his key to open my door to present a welcome letter from the Bookaroo organisers. Wow, such dedication to the job. I can almost hear the voice of the man's boss, "You do not rest till the letter is delivered. Even if it means gaining unauthorised access to the guest's room!"

Overall, it was an excellent festival made even more pleasurable by the enthusiasm of Bookaroo's volunteers and the flattering author-fan mania that gripped us. I felt like I was a celebrity. Well, almost. If you can discount the competitive fervour to collect the most no. of signatures per child. By the time I left on Saturday evening, it was good to hear that all my Amos Lee books had sold out at the festival book store. I was also surprised to hear that Amos Book#3 had been awarded the 3rd prize in the Popular's Readers' Choice Awards when I flew home. All said, it was a good start to a new week.
More exciting stuff ahead, as I look forward to setting up a blog site managed by a friend to post news of The Diary of Amos Lee TV show in production. Stay tuned!
Cheers, adeline