Nurtures the joy of learning

Litjoys is a labour of love, by Ekta Ohri, a mother, an anthropologist by profession and now author. Founded in 2017, it is part of her vision to create value creating books and experience

based learning activities for children across age groups (4-10). Inspired by Ekta's own desire to move away from the current toxic trends in childhood, with an over exposure to screens, plastic

toys and junk food, LitJoys nurtures the joy of learning in children by offering them the sense of discovery and tactility. Taking many notes from nature, the world around us, and creating value based learning with easily identifiable characters and situations; Litjoys makes this a family activity that parents and children can bond over as well.

Ekta Ohri shared some important information with The Hans India about what made her start LitJoys and her journey. Let's have a look into it.

What was the idea behind starting LitJoys?

The idea of Litjoys came way before I became a mother myself. When a three-year-old girl walked into a house, she was a family friend's daughter, etc. But at that time in 2012, it was quite odd, when you see three years old girl was spending three hours at our house, and she just didn't look up from an iPad, and not has a background in anthropology, and acknowledge the presence, and hit me more than I was like, what is going on with the children. Now it's reality and all kids are into the screen, and obviously with Covid-19, online learning. I was shocked at how the parents are bringing them up, and how it's going to impact their development, they might have normally. In that time, I have decided that I have to do something to get children off-screen and all. And the idea lingered on in my brain.

A memorable journey or story you would like to share?

Before Covid happened, there was a moment when the School in Hyderabad, Oakridge International School, they have invited me for a school session, and there were like, 300 students, right across stations. What touched me that every child was eating and has read my book, in advance of the session, not all of them had, and when I walked before I walked into the school auditorium, there was already like, a whole notice board with posters, where they had written how my book read after reading my book, they are changing their behaviors.

It's the same school which I like, I just got a coincidentally a message yesterday that, we have some guest authors, something coming up and can you come in as a guest author and I was like, I'm happy to do it virtually, and then they want me to talk about how to build a love for reading.

What made you choose this venture?

When my son was born, at the same time, I was quite interested in the education space, and I quit my job. And I started researching education; I decided doing, like one, it was 2016. Yeah, this was when he was one and a half years old. And I just decided to quit my job because I was very interested in doing something in the education space. And the primary idea was to get children of technology, and build a love for reading, invest, so that's how it started. And what I did was, though, that before I could do anything, or founded a company or anything, I didn't see these workshops, with, you know, parents and children. And for the informal level, it was a free workshop, there are a couple of paid ones, but the idea was local workshops to get an understanding of, you know, parent, child and dynamic, you know, parenting challenges, how children learn best things like that, right. And that's when it hit me, then, you know, one of them and at the same time, I encountered this text called toxic childhood, by a British psychologist, Sue Palmer, where she talks about the concept in terms of non-discreet addiction to sleep with plastic toys, junk food, lack of parental involvement, that's what also she says is very toxic for children

How do you manage both your professional and personal life?

I started working when my son was one and a half. It was not easy initially to manage both lives together, I can only give one hour, two hours, three hours, that pace, I used to work, right, because it was very small. But at the same time, I was also very conscious of the fact that I mean, I can educate the world and ignore my child. I mean, I'm talking about parental involvement here, and all of that, and how do I, you know, I mean, I can't be ignoring my child. So one of the things that I started doing, which I also started, including him, in some of my design, testing, or design ideas, I gave him my book to read as a draft. I'm a very plant and my father taught me all these skills, he's a very time-conscious plant person. So, I plan things accordingly in advance.

Tell us about yourself and before LitJoys what you used to do?

I am an anthropologist by profession and before starting LitJoys I was working with a consulting firm, where I was into design thinking and user-centered design, and where I would guide teams to design various products and services across sectors, health care, financial services, and education was also one of them.