Mumbai: School students utilise lockdown time; author books

Mumbai: Last year, when COVID was at its peak in India and educational institutions were shut, among other school students who chose to spend their time doing something fruitful, a few of them developed a habit of reading and writing and eventually ended up publishing their own books.

What motivated the young authors to write their own books?

Ananya Dagia of JBCN International School, Borivali, is one of the school students who authored two storybooks - Honest Heidi and Unprepared Mouse.

“Both the books were initially written as part of a school English assignment when I was in fourth class,” said Dagia, a grade six student now.

The student said her mother has been a great help for her when she initially decided to write the book. “She was the one because of whom I could decide the morals for both my stories,” Dagia said.

Asked about how she came up with the title name, the student reiterated her love for using alliteration wherever she could and hence the title of her first book ‘Honest Heidi’.

Furthermore, she emphasised how she learned to finish tasks on time and not procrastinate, giving her the idea for her second story ‘Unprepared Mouse’.

Another student, Kaavya Ramani, a 7th-grade student of Orchids The International School, Malad, authored a self-guide book titled ‘The Weapon of Success’. The book is about achieving success with what you already have in life.

Kaavya mentioned her father to be her inspiration while writing the book. “I always wonder about the success my dad has achieved as a counsellor and think about what process he might have followed to reach this point. Hence, my book simply focuses on different ways to achieve success,” the student said.

Jayashri Bhake, Principal, Orchids The International School, Malad, said that during the pandemic, students were not exposed to anything related to studies apart from what she termed “boring” online classes.

She stated that to somehow keep the students hooked on basic reading-writing duo the school had mandated blog writing once a month right from grade 1.

“Many students already were habitual to reading throughout the lockdown and it has helped them with increased creativity along with better vocabulary and imagination, which further lead to better blogs reaching us,” Principal Bhake said.

Another 7th-grade student Ayushman Kalita, of Orchids The International School, Koparkhairane, published his first non-fiction book that revolves around the concept of black holes. He has given his book the title ‘Black Holes in a Nutshell’.

Ayushman told the Free Press Journal that unlike other students he was persuaded by a well-known English theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawkings.

While writing the non-fiction piece, he referred to ‘Black Holes’ and ‘The Theory of Everything’, which are two of the books written by his role model. He added, “The book includes a brief visualization of what anyone could understand by the term ‘black hole’.

Six students - five boys in grade 7 and one girl in grade 5 - of Children’s Academy, Malad East, published a collaborative book titled ‘Lets not grow up’ in 2022. The book authored by Yugen Mehta, Hitansh Shah, Aarush Jain, Revant Nangalia, Ronav Bihani, and Khanak Saboo talks about the adventures of back-bencher students throughout their school life.

Yugen Mehta, one of the authors, said, “It was an amazing experience for all of us. Mainly, reading books during the pandemic and thinking about our school life while attending those online lectures made us want to write something about school-life adventures.”

These six students gained a spot in ‘India Book of Records’ and ‘Asia Book of Records’ for publishing a piece of fiction with the highest number of collaborators.

Khanak Saboo, prior to the collaborative book ‘Lets not grow up’, had also published a book called ‘A partitioned Land’ for which she was the sole author. The anthology consists of several thought-provoking stories and a bunch of poetries.

“I used to read books by Sudha Murthy and they always inspired me. That is when I thought I wanted to persuade people with my writing just like others’ writings did to me,” Saboo added.