CHENNAI: Armed with a box of crayons, some paper, and endless imagination, Adithya Iyer, at only 10 years of age, has brought alive his stories from the scribbled strokes on household walls to the pages of his own published books. With the assistance and guidance of his father, Ganapathy Subramanian, the Palakkad resident has published eight storybooks under the umbrella of The Flying Cow Books, spanning various genres and themes.
It began with an early interest in art and was propelled by the Amar Chitra Katha workshop that he attended a few years ago. “We used to buy him colouring books, but instead of colouring, he would reconstruct the drawing by looking at it. The workshop taught him how to imagine his story and draw characters accordingly. That’s when he created Aadhi, Ram and Nidhi, and came up with his first book Dream Adventures: The Ghost Breakers,” explains Ganapathy.
Throughout the course of seven books, these young characters — based on him and his cousins Sreeram and Sreenidhi — set out on fictional adventures in varied settings. They are inspired by YouTube videos and cartoons (Tom and Jerry, Chota Bheem), he discloses. Some even from the reality that surrounds him. Apart from frequenting the tales of Adithya’s imagination, Sreeram is also the designer/developer of The Flying Cow Books website and Sreenidhi, a colouring artist, helps him out.
When the young writer is not drawing or watching his favourite cartoons, he finds himself engrossed in a Sudha Murty or Priya Kuriyan novel, or enamoured by Amar Chitra Katha illustrations.
An unexpected fandom
The first copy of Ghost Breakers was only a father’s way of making the memory tangible, but to his surprise, it found an audience. “I just wanted one copy but my friends and colleagues also began asking for one so I started printing on my own. While I did approach other publishers initially, they seemed hesitant since he is a child so I decided to create my own publishing book house,” he adds. Apart from the fans (and the school library that carries his books), the young achiever was also recognised by the India Book of Records.
Dealing with the project alongside schoolwork may seem like a daunting task, but the family seems to have worked out a system in place. “I draw for one hour a day and the rest of the time, I spend focussing on my studies. Whatever I draw for the book is also in that time,” shares Adithya to which Ganapathy adds, “His mother (Akhila KV) takes care of school, while I take care of the books.” It seems that while school is important, Adithya’s dreams of becoming an animator are taken just as seriously in the family. “If you take this generation, many are scoring 99 per cent in school but what will they do for their career? Several end up in jobs in which they are not interested. If he takes his passion or interest and excels into it, finds a break, he can do the same for a living later,” he shares.
Learning together
The operation has become a from of relaxation for Ganapathy too. “I have never worked with Photoshop before. Because he picked this up as an interest, I had to know the layout and create the speech bubbles and such. I started taking tutorials on YouTube, got the license and am learning with him. I see it as some relief from work,” he shares.
Purchase at theflyingcowbooks.co.in