“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ― Anais Nin.
Meet Ms Sanskriti Rao, a class 10 students of Sharada Mandir School, Goa; and Ms Pritha Doegar of class 8, a student of Auckland House School, Shimla; as they pen amazing stories to win the monthly cash award and an assured place in Keekli’s Fiction Treasure Trove — 2022.
The cash award for our monthly winners has been sponsored by Nanak Chand Roshni Sood Charitable Trust, Shimla. We also appreciate and acknowledge our associates — Information & Public Relations Department, Himachal Pradesh; Department of Language Art & Culture, Himachal Pradesh; Media Partner Himachal Tonite; Radio Partner BigFM; and all the anonymous donors who believe in us and support us unconditionally.
The Judges were floored reading these stories. Read what they have to say…
Prantik Bose, “It was a wonderful experience. At their age I must admit that I was no match to their brilliance, elan and poise. I really enjoyed it. Devina Bedi kept me glued to the events. The way she unravelled the mystery was a class in itself. A jury who felt humbled by the brilliance of the little masters.”
Gunjan Batra, “The range of emotions, characters, plots, sub plots, and narratives, reflecting the fertile imagination of the young authors is a delight. Can’t wait to read some more.! I was floored by some of them.”
Tanaya G Dastidar, “Every person under the sun has the ability to imagine and put forward her/his thoughts; some use speech to express, while others pen down their vivid imagination. Here on this platform too, we can witness some excellent piece of creativity and writings. Having said this, I am glad to be a part of this event or rather competition, wherein I get to go through a wide range of imagination. The kids are brilliant with their thoughts and ideas, along with the line of imagination brought forward to the readers. Although some pieces are very good and some good, but I can’t deny the fact that each story is different and the idea behind each story is so unique in itself. A blend of good vocabulary, great articulation of idea and creativity, smart expressions make each story readable and take you to imagine the plot, which is a great ability of each writer. We hope to get more such creative pieces to cherish our reading habits.”
Prantik Bose has few pointers to share too:
1) The ability to write in simple and lucid English gets one a far greater audience. I would request you to read any article of Khushwant Singh or Kuldip Nayyar to get a first-hand experience of how simple yet powerful they were. Avoid complex and compound sentences as much as you can.
2) Try to read newspapers where you get a multitude of writers, their views, opinions and writing styles, all available within the span of a few pages.
3) Try to read the regional best sellers like Satyajit Ray of Bengal or get hold of a translated copy of the regional best sellers. Satyajit Ray was a student of Tagore. You all must read the regional best sellers as much as you can.
4) I would suggest that all budding writers read the entire Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner which will let you have a glimpse of how to hold back the reader till the last word. Gerald Durrell and Conan Doyle are other renowned authors which you must read.
5) Try to avoid long discourses as it is difficult to hold the attention throughout the time span required to complete a long story unless if it pertains to travel, adventure or detective stories, court room battles.
6) I would request all of you to read, re-read and revise what you have written again and again. You will yourself feel the need to change what you have written earlier.
7) Everybody has a unique biological rhythm or cycle. I have always felt the early mornings to be the best. Choose your best part of the day to write.
8) Kindly keep a track of the sequence of tenses. If you start with a particular tense then it is a convention that you complete the story by not deviating from that tense. This also gives the readers a sense of relief of not having to tackle many tense patterns inadvertently.
9) Characters or sets of characters must flow very smoothly with the plot of the story. It is better to avoid a multitude of characters.
10) The backdrop of a story (big or small) is very important. It is like the railway track. No matter how fast or slow you run, the backdrop must be powerful and constant. You must enjoy the backdrop yourself too. And create a suspense at the very start and keep weaving the cocoon around that suspense till the last word.
Wish you all a very successful future and keep enjoying the writing!
