Harshita Magdum

Letting her imagination run riot is the most natural pastime of teenage novelist Harshita Magdum (14). Her novel Almost… desperate (Stalwart Publications, Rs.300) was released at the Press Club, Bangalore by Kannada writer Sa.Si. Murliah on January 19. This is the young writers second book after Ruby Rush (Ruvari Publications) was published in 2010, with its first print run of 2,000 copies sold out.The elder of two siblings, Harshita was introduced to the magical world of books when she was just five by her parents — Basavaraj Magdum, a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inspector, and homemaker mother Shivani. By the time I was seven, I had finished reading the entire series of Enid Blyton apart from the works of Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling and Cassandra Clair, recalls Harshita. Inspired to write like her favourite authors and by her love of the English language, Harshita started writing short stories when she was eight. Two years later in 2009, she began writing Ruby Rush, which took seven months to complete. My father liked the story and undertook to be my agent. As usual, it was rejected by all major publishing companies. But the Bangalore-based Ruvari Publications finally agreed to publish it, she says. Clearly, this class VIII student of Bangalore’s Delhi Public School (North) is thrilled by the success of her first novel and hopes to replicate it with Almost… desperate. My books written for teenagers, are full of action with a mix of suspense and adventure, she says. To hone her writers craft, Harshita avidly does three hours of extra-curricular reading every day, after completing her homework and putting in four hours per week of basketball practice. Luckily I dont watch television like other kids. Instead I write after dinner and often late into the night during school terms. However, most of my writing which could stretch to four-five hours per day happens during school vacations, says Harshita. Curiously, Almost… desperate — a 260-page novel about a young Columbian high school students encounter with a vampire — and Ruby Rush — a 100-page science fiction thriller about a mystery surrounding a stolen scientific discovery — are based in Bogota and London, cities Harshita has never visited. I decided on them simply because of their exotic locales, she says, and has started work on her third novel — a whodunit. Despite her early success, Harshita is not set on a writing career. Its not a financially secure profession, she says sagely, and intends to study medicine and psychology after completing class XII, while continuing to write for personal and public satisfaction. Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore) Aditya Deshpande Pune lad Aditya Deshpande (12) has proved his skills on the pianoforte by winning top honours at the Musiquest national piano festival 2011 held in Pune last November. Musiquest is an all-India piano talent discovery contest pres-ented in an informal and friendly workshop/masterclass format, offering participants the opportunity not only of public performance, but of receiving instruction and certificates from an international panel of judges.…