HYDERABAD: The word lilliput takes us back to school to that story when the giant Gulliver met those little people in a place called Lilliput. Closer to home is this virtual group on Facebook called the Lilliput Novels Club, where everyone becomes a story teller. Only that they have to say it in a 100 words.
The idea popped in Vithal Rajan’s mind after he was asked to write a story of less than a 100 words, in honour of Nelson Mandela by a Spanish Foundation that believes, words are a way to bring the world together.
“I sent them a story and then thought, why not start one for the Hyderabadi community and hence created that page on Facebook. The idea was to invite 100-word stories from people as I thought that anyone can write,” says Vithal and the idea spread soon enough as the group now has close to 650 members, actively contributing stories.
“We have people from the city and countries like UK, USA, Canada contributing regularly,” he adds.
A story has a beginning, a middle and an end and achieving that in just 100 words is quite a task. But if one logs on to the page it becomes clear, that short and meaningful story tellers make quite a big number.
The writers also explore genres – horror, thriller, love, evolution in different formats like narrative and dialogue, where some even have well etched out characters doing it dutifully within a hundred words.
“I think it is a great discipline of writing. You ask people to write a trilogy, they won’t cause of various factors. This, anyone can do.At the same time, it is craftmanship,” opines Vithal who has authored 10 books till date, all in different genres. ‘Sharmaji Padmashree’, ‘The Year of High Treason’, ‘Holmes of the Raj’ are some of them.
Along with growing number of people in the group, the way they are telling stories has also changed and Vithal likes to call this evolution.
Member in the Lilliput Novels Club have lately started posting pictures to tell stories – making it a photo story. Ask Vithal if this defeats the original idea he responds in the negative. “I don’t think that makes it any different. Use a picture or further add some music, as long as you are telling a story in 100 words it is a good enough exercise,” says the 79-year-old who took to writing 10 years ago as a leisure activity.