Delhi Friends Quit Jobs to Bring Stories to 2,000 Kids

In the remote village of Gunehar, Himachal Pradesh, children now sprint to school excited about what creative adventure awaits them. This wasn't the reality just three years ago.

Anoop Chugh, a 40-year-old theatre director, and Jasmine Kaur, a 35-year-old footwear designer, met in Delhi in 2020 at a storytelling session. When they traveled together to an art festival in Gunehar that May, something shifted in both of them.

The village children they met had never owned a book or held a paintbrush. Most came from families where they were the first generation to attend school at all. After returning to Delhi, Anoop and Jasmine found themselves counting down the days until they could return to the village each weekend.

By the end of 2020, they made a bold choice. They quit their city jobs and launched Kahaani ki Dukaan, which means "Story Shop" in Hindi.

Their bright yellow car now serves as a mobile library, winding through mountain roads to deliver books and art supplies to villages across Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. They've distributed over 2,000 books to children who had never seen their parents read.

The duo doesn't just hand out books and leave. They run after-school sessions where 80 children in Gunehar learn storytelling, painting, and theatre. Kids color outside the lines without fear and create their own stories to perform for visitors.

"We love the games they teach us," says Karthik, one of the students. His classmate Sanjana adds that her favorite part is writing her own stories, and she's thrilled there's no homework.

The Ripple Effect

The impact extends beyond the children. Village women who spent their entire lives within a few miles of home now participate in creative workshops. These mothers speak of worlds they've only imagined but never seen, finding their own voices through art and storytelling.

Anoop and Jasmine have reached 30 villages so far, transforming how over 2,000 children see themselves and their futures. In places where fitting in was once the goal, standing out through creativity is now celebrated. The word "school" has become synonymous with "fun" in communities where education was once just a path to the next grade.

What started as weekend trips from Delhi has blossomed into a full-time mission that proves sometimes the best stories are the ones we help others tell.