Unlike most others Renu Gavaskar relies on telling stories and letting children play to tap their hidden innocence

Little children with nervous toothy smiles stare in part amazement and part awe as a lady gently sits them down to talk to them. She proceeds to regale them with stories and then lets them play to their hearts content, seeing the childhood flower in each of their dreamy eyes.

Welcome to the world of Renu Gavaskar — a place where story telling and playing assume as much importance as studying lessons from a schoolbook.

Explaining her tryst with her work, she says, "I began working as a social activist almost 25 years back. Some very personal reasons actually inspired me to take up this profession as I realised that a lot of love goes untapped in this world. A reason why I chose to work with the underprivileged children of society was because this section represents something that I call 'Children of a lesser God'. They do not have much access to formal schooling but what is truly saddening is the fact that they do not have access to even playing and being children. That is what I am trying to work towards-bringing the innocence back in them."

A gifted storyteller, Gavaskar was deeply inspired by works of authors Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Hans Christian Anderson. It was this deep belief in her own story telling abilities that led her to launch her book of stories for children last year entitled Goshti Janmantarichya. Interestingly the book was written together along with children and also had translations of some very popular children's stories.

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