‘Ja Ichcha Tai’: New activity book seeks to ignite creativity in adults

In a break from activity books for children containing games, images, and writing instructions, Shuvashish Roy, a postgraduate of creativity, innovation, and business strategy from the University of Exeter, has written the first-ever creative journal in the Bangla language, Ja Ichcha Tai (Protik Prokashana Sangstha, 2021), which promises its fair share of fun-loving and creative exercises for adults.

Roy took on the project as an experiment on how humorous activities can be a stress reliever and can enable one to think outside the box. In the pages of Ja Ichcha Tai, Roy incorporates games, quizzes, and challenges to offer readers a break from the mundane routines of adult life.

The activities included in the book range from pasting photos and asking for the autograph of the first person one sees wearing blue on a busy road, to general knowledge quizzes, to prompts for colouring and writing poetry.

Creating awareness was another part of Roy's plans for the book. "Paste a dead leaf on the next page; can we not expect a green Earth?" one page asks of the reader in Ja Icha Tai. On another, the book asks the reader to cut and paste a t-shirt tag made in Bangladesh onto the page,  as a tribute to RMG workers whose contributions to Bangladesh's economy are all too often undermined.

Ja Ichcha Tai (Protik Prokashana Sangstha, 2021) and can be found online on aadi.com.bd: https://www.aadi.com.bd/products/yaa-icchaa-taai-shubhaashiiss-raayy-ja-ichcha-tai-shubhashish-roy-9122/.