ALAPPUZHA: With schools, playgrounds, parks and every other avenue for outdoor activity shut, children have lost their world to the pandemic, albeit temporarily. For many, the four walls of a room is the world. And they end up playing cricket, badminton and other games indoors with the wall as their opponent.
To help free kids from unending periods of boredom, a children’s author from Alappuzha is writing poems and posting them on his social media page. At least for some, this has come as a relief. Chandiroor Thaha, 50, has been writing short stories, novels and poems for children for the past 35 years. A lot of his writings have appeared in children’s periodicals like Poompatta, Balarama, Balamangalam and Thathamma. “When Covid restrictions started in 2020 March, I had more time and started to write extensively. I wrote small poems to create awareness about protecting nature through simple messages. That attracted kids. I posted 101 little poems on my Facebook page at the time,” he said.
He has also written two children’s novels Mandhrikapazham (Magic Fruit) and Appunni Raja (King Appunni), which are ready for publishing.“In a majority of my writings, I have tried to spread a message of protecting the environment. Children are the future and they should understand the value of protecting nature. My attempt is to educate them. The themes of my novels and most short stories too are based on the conservation of environment,” Thaha said.
Working as a supervisor in a seafood processing company at Chandiroor, near Cherthala, he has garnered over 5,000 followers on FB. Thaha has received awards like the Nurungu Katha Puraskaram and the Viral Katha Puraskaram for his writing. He started writing aged 15, with his first work appearing in Thathamma in 1986. He has also presented many programmes for Akashavani’s Balatharangam platform. He has a big collection of more than 3,000 mini magazines published in Malayalam.