SOARING HIGH, SPREADING HER LITTLE WINGS INTO THE SKY!

Featuring the young author Arundhati Nithiyanandhan

Arundhati Nithiyanandhan (Aru) is eight years old and lives in Bangalore, India. She loves telling new stories to her father while they both go for a walk in the evening. Aru and her father have taken this journey further and have successfully published 3 children storybooks which have included the imagination of a child and the professionalism of an adult. Aru creates her stories from her day to day incidents and most of them are treasured part of her childhood. In a candid chat with Chirdeep Malhotra, Aru talks about her writing journey and why stories interest her so much. The interview with this budding author is inspirational, and the article also contains some inputs by her father.

Arundhati Nithiyanandhan, is also lovingly called Aru by everyone around her, and this is also the name which is a protagonist in her books. She is eight years old and lives in Bangalore, India. Aru creates her stories from her day to day incidents and most of them are a treasured part of her childhood.

When asked about the feeling of becoming a writer of children’s books at such a young age, she says “I feel happy when I see my friends reading my books and also to see my books on display at the book store and I feel like jumping into a new adventure every time I write new stories.” Asked about her writing journey, she quips, “I love telling new stories to my father while we both go for a walk in the evening.” Her father chips in, “Aru got inspired to tell stories after drawing her first storybook in a storytelling workshop conducted by Bangalore Literature Festival 2017. We have taken this journey further and have successfully published 3 children storybooks.”

Her three books include ‘Aru’s Balcony Garden’, ‘Likes & Dislikes’ and ‘Lost & Found’. The book “Aru’s Balcony Garden” is about a girl Arundhati who lives in an apartment community of a metro city. She is used to a small garden at her home balcony that is full of blooming plants that she loves. This story is inspired by this habit of hers and how she likes to water the plants with her parents.

The book “Likes & Dislikes” is about Arundhati and Tanisha, who are sisters and also each other’s best friends and spend most of their time together. They play, sing, dance and, knowing their likes and dislikes with respect to objects and correlating them with the five senses helps them understand each other better. This story is inspired by random conversations between Aru and her sister playing at the terrace.

The book “Lost & Found” is about Osito, Arundhati's favorite soft toy. He is also one of her constant companions when she goes on vacation to her family. He has travelled with her to Melbourne, Singapore, Shimla, Bekal, and Udaipur among other places. During these trips, he has also been on small adventures where Arundhati has inadvertently misplaced him and later found him, much to her relief! This story is about one such incident that happened in Udaipur Lake Palace and how Arundhati got her favorite travel buddy back.

The response of readers to her book has been phenomenal, and she has received a plethora of rave reviews, with both children and their parents liking the books. Her father says, “We have received some very good feedback from various reviewers and readers. The main consistent feedback is that this book connects very well with the children’s age.”

Talking about a typical day in her life, Aru says that it involves getting ready to school in the morning, and spending the whole day at school with friends. The evening is playtime and in the night, she has family time with her parents and sister.

On being asked about her reading habits and her favourite books, she says, “I read some books. I like Enid Blyton, Sudha Murthy and Roald Dahl books. My favourite books are ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ by Enid Blyton, and ‘The BFG’ and ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl.” Her books are doing very good in the category of children’s books with a reading level of less than 12 years, and on being asked to recommend more such books for children, she says “I would definitely recommend Sudha Murthy, Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. I also recommend ‘Petu Pumpkin: Tooth troubles’ by Arundhati Venkatesh. I met her at the Bangalore Literature Festival and she gave me a signed copy of the book.” On being asked if she has started a book club with her friends or peers of her age where they discuss books, she says she hasn’t but she will think about doing that.

She has also given a speech at Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) where she talks about how BLF helped her become a writer. She says, “When I went to Bangalore Literature Festival, I was a bit nervous.Then we went to the authors lounge and met all the authors. When my turn came to speak, I was a bit afraid but I didn’t show it. The host Debalina aunty and my daddy helped me to answer the questions. The kids also asked me questions and for one of the questions, I said ‘That is an interesting question’ and everybody laughed because it was very cute.”

She is also winning accolades for her writing. Her fourth story was submitted for a writing competition held by White Falcon Publishing house and it was selected in the top 10 stories in India. She also got a Young writers Award for 2019.

Her other interests apart from writing include drawing, making comic strips and creating crafts out of toilet paper roll. She loves to play in the sand and colour sketches.

On being asked what she would like to become when she grows up, she says that she would like to become an illustrator and an author. Her plans for the future also include making stories for elder kids as well. She also says, “I think I can write stories for movies or even make movies.”

She also plans on writing more books. She says, “I want to write more books. I am currently thinking of a story about a magical elevator. It is going to be more interesting.” Her role model is her daddy, who inspired her to write books and the movie Wall E has also inspired her to make movies, which she plans to do sometime in the future.

A motivational quote that her father tells her to inspire her is, “Belief, Passion and Perseverance are the keys for success. We have to believe in ourselves, enjoy what we do and also should not give up.”

So this is our interaction with the budding author Aru, and we hope that the readers will also get inspired after reading such an energizing and inspirational story.