In this session of DLF 2018, Himanjali Sanker, a YA novelist, is widely famous for writing books on children and has also worked as an editor with famous publishing houses of Delhi, held an intimate discussion with children about her book, The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog. Throughout the discussion, she tried to bring out creativity among the children and explained the importance of literature to them.
At the starting of the session, she inquired whether any of the children were fond of super-heroes, since she represents a dog in the form of a super-hero consisting of super-natural powers in her book, and emphasised the importance of supernatural powers in human life. While talking about super-heroes she tried to connect ties between super-heroes and fantasy stories, explaining how both serve the same purpose of saving the world at any cost. The book she talked about revolves around a dog called Rousseau who has an exceptional ability to tell time. Initially Rousseau was referred as “a crazy dog,” but later on, when a disaster strikes upon the people because of an invisible group who regard themselves as time-keepers of the universe called Orange Marmaladies, then suddenly time disappears from the world and Rousseau saves the day.
The Orange Marmaladies resemble those who are supposed to be shown as villains but are actually friendly creatures that love to interact with people. Through the story, Himanjali brought out the trait of anthropomorphism and also humoured, “Good is supposed to triumph over evil,” but in reality that does not always happen. Thus, through this story Himanjali explained to the kids that in spite of being imaginary characters, they actually exhibit the situation of human beings.
Later on, Himanjali asked the children if they liked literature, since most children love TV shows nowadays. In reply, the kids named some famous fairytales and shows based on them. Children nowadays do not have an interest to read books, which is mainly due to the fact that books have a lot of words. Himanjali recommended, “Illustrations are sort of good way to connect,” and suggested that these young, enthusiastic writers should write whatever they want without thinking about the mainstream audience.
Himanjali emphasised that the main ingredients of stories are imagination, thoughts, memories and the experiences that one goes through in every phases of life. She told the audience that though it is hard to satisfy the masses, if one has the capability then they should never be shy with publishers and keep writing even if it’s in their diaries. She wanted young people to explore their ideas and read whatever they like because knowledge can be inherited from anywhere.
