Inspiration

The festival is inspired by the life of

Thakur Vishva Narain Singh,

a well-known journalist and award winning writer of Dehra Dun. He was the first Braille Editor of India at the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH) who literally brought light into the lives of the blind who had no means of learning for the lack of books available in Braille. He served the visually impaired by bringing out literature for the 10 million blind in the country in 10 regional languages in the Braille script. For his relentless effort he received numerous awards including, the Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1977 in Journalism and the Indian Council for Child Education Award in 1987 for outstanding contribution in children literature. Taking from his idea ‘Possess your own library’ and his love to spread the joy of reading, Ghummakkad Narain came into being. And in 2010, Ghummakkad Narain – The Travelling Children’s Literature festival was held for the first time in Dehradun.