The lockdown period brought the world to a standstill, but for some like the nine-year-old Ajnaa Dvivedi, it kick-started a new journey. Ajnaa just unveiled her debut book of stories that she wrote during the lockdown and the first phase of Unlock.
Her fictional work, The Adventures of Anvi – Not An Ordinary Beginning, is on the struggles, love, hope, and friendship of an alien girl who has lost her home.
Spread over 120 pages and 11 chapters, The Adventures of Anvi contains over 20,000 words and is dedicated to animals, and demonstrates that all species are as a much part of the planet as we humans are. All the line illustrations in the book are also courtesy this tiny author. Ajnaa discloses the plotline of the book: “It is about a little alien girl who goes from being different and disliked to becoming strong and confident.
The story takes you through different instances and characters to prove we cannot do great things without taking responsibility. It also tells us that love makes the world go round, and that pain and loss are an important part life.” She hopes that kids her age would love reading her maiden effort. “I think children love reading books written by other children. After all, it is about our world, in our way,” she avers. It was her love f o r reading that drew Ajnaa to take up writing at such a young age. “One day, while reading a book it struck me, if elders can write a book, why can’t I? I asked my mother if I could do this and she agreed immediately.
I remember her telling me, ‘You can do anything you are passionate about.’ That was the beginning,” says the Class 5 student of Bluebells International, Kailash Colony, New Delhi. Initially, her dad didn’t like his daughter staying up late to write and then get up early next morning to attend online classes. “But over time, he understood as I was diligent in handling both. Now, he is proud of me.”
Ajnaa is also a blogger and has a YouTube channel. The voracious reader prefers being called a “bookbird” instead of “bookworm” and gives all the credit for her reading and writing skills to her English teacher. “And then on my birthday, I requested my mom to let me to start a blog to which she agreed.
"She has always encouraged me.” The young author loves sketching and painting in her leisure time and chooses to stay away from the small screen.
“Only when my cousin comes over we watch television, otherwise I prefer reading,” she says. Ajnaa’s mother Vertica is associated with architecture and design and her father Pragath is a statistics researcher. Though it’s too early for the nine-year-old to decide where she wants to head career-wise, writing is one realm she is pretty certain about continuing for as long as possible. “I want to begin my second book ASAP,” she says excitedly.
Book details
The Adventures of Anvi – Not An Ordinary Beginning by Ajna Dwivedi
Pages: 120
Price: I100 (paperback)
Publisher: Bigsea Marcom (I) Pvt. Ltd