Writing can be a fun-filled activity if you have a passion for it. This is proved by a 7-year-old Jiya Gangadhar who is studying in Ekya Schools JP Nagar. This 2nd grader is the proud author of a children’s book “L is for Lockdown – Jiya’s Journal of Lockdown Lessons”.This book is now available on ecommerce website Amazon India.
This book is a creative non-fiction piece, transcribed from Jiya’s diary during the pandemic. It’s about her experiences with new routines, new fears and new learnings during one whole year of attending online classes or home-schooling, and her ways of dealing with uncertainties during the pandemic. The chapters describe Jiya’s experiences where some were amusing to her while others not as much.
Inspired by her mother who is in the marketing profession, Jiya started to pen down her thoughts in a dairy. Today the selected stories from her diary has taken a beautiful shape in the form of a book. From stories about her encounter with the newspaper boy who came to collect the old papers to learnings around online games and advanced topics like phishing, the book highlights her experiences and learnings during the lockdown. To make it easier for the children to read, the entire book is divided into chapters.
Speaking about her experience Jiya Gangadhar, author of the book said “When the lockdown was announced, we started our online classes. As I was at home, I had a lot of time to spare. It gave me time to delve into each routine moment, which I couldn’t have done if I were to go to school. As my parents were also there at home, I could immediately speak to them and clear my doubts. I started to write all my experiences in a dairy. When my mother read the dairy and mooted the idea of making a book out of it, I was thrilled. After the book got published and when I saw it on Amazon it was the happiest moment for me. I loved it when my classmates and teachers congratulated me!”.
Ms. Sreepriya Unnikrishnan, Principal, Ekya School JP Nagar said “We were happy to see a book authored by one of our students getting published. Jiya had imbibed a good habit of writing in her diary daily and the effort of her mother to recognize her passion for writing is really appreciated. As soon as Jiya’s parents informed us about the book, our faculty came forward to help them with the publishing house. Today, the book is being appreciated by everyone. At Ekya Schools, we always encourage such exceptional qualities in children”.
Ms. Divya A S, Jiya’s class teacher helped them to find the publisher and the book is published by Blue Rose Publishers, Delhi.
The entire process of selecting stories and publishing took almost one year’s time. Currently, Jiya is all prepped up to write her second book.