SOURCE: THE HINDU

In Hyderabad, an ATM that dispenses literature

The Story Box dispenses curated poems, fables, facts and puzzles, all at the click of a button. Try it at the Hyderabad Literary Festival at Vidyaranya High School

Push a button and read a poem in Hyderabad. A vending machine that dispenses stories, fables, facts, and puzzles is all set to make its debut at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) at Vidyaranya High School from January 27 to 29.

Called the Story Box, this four-foot tall cherry orange machine made of metal is customised to print free information on HLF’s multiple activities across 13 streams as well as short, curated literary content. “Students call it an ATM of literature,” smiles Aparna Vishwanatham seated next to a Story Box at DoScience, an experiential Science centre, in Sanjeevaiah Park.

The idea germinated in December 2019 when the team considered acquiring and setting up France’s Story Machine — a story-vending machine — at DoScience.

It was not easy though as importing it would be expensive. With no blueprint to work on, the team worked through an iterative process to create Story Box. “In terms of the final output and the interface, we don’t even know what’s inside the Story Machine. We only knew that it prints at the press of a button. We started from scratch; our only aim was to print stories in English, Telugu and Hindi.”