Storytelling is an important aspect of childhood in India. Kids are full of imaginative stories - but many of them never find an audience beyond their families and friends. More so, because in India, the number of kids who drop out of secondary school is as high as 50%. As a result their imagination remains unappreciated and their potential lies untapped. Children from the economically weaker sections of society receive no encouragement and would never grow up to be authors and storytellers.

Airtel's brief to us was to create an activation idea that would motivate underprivileged children to stay in school - and to do it in a way that would be memorable. Part of the objective was that the activation should lead to a video that could be shared, thereby spreading the message of how telecom can create social changes.

The execution was done in several phases.

In the first phase we reached out to schools for underprivileged children, and conduct writing workshops to select bright young potential storytellers. This was done in October-November 2015.

The selected children were introduced to the author Amish Tripathi over talked with them over Skype calls, and told them the first chapter of a story he wanted to write with them. The story travelled from one child to another, as each of them wrote one chapter of the book. The story was ready in January, and then an artist illustrated the pages in tune with the children's imagination.

The book was printed, and Amish Tripathi launched it at the Jaipur Litfest on January 24, 2016. The printed book was distributed at the schools and in the villages the children hail from, and also through Airtel offices and employees.