Quandaries of a 11 year old

March 23 2006

I so wanna write a kewl story and be the next Enid Blyton!!( Do you know her she is my rolemodel. For a long time though , I thought she was a he. ) The problem  quandary*  of being a 11 year old is that everything I write seems to be related to her characters and I feel like that is copying!

My teacher says that if I just take the idea and develop the ‘plot’ myself and Indianize my characters it will not be copying in the ‘strict’ sense.  But I like that my book’s title is ” Inspector Jenks and the 5 truth seekers” There must be an inspector Jenks in India? Aren’t we the land of many people?

I also like my characters to eat scones and eclairs. Do you know that eclairs , the chocolate we eat ( which I thought was what Enid was talking about) is named after the English dish of the same name?!?! My friend Rasika told me the other day and I got really embrassed when I didn’t know.

I don’t like my stories to ever end.  I started one about 2 thieves back in 4th standard ( I used to be so ‘lame’. I used to write each line with a different coloured glitter pen) and I still haven’t finished it. I feel very sad to end their adventure. Then it will be like they don’t exist anymore.

My best stories are those which I take with myself when I go to sleep. I develop them in my head and they are totally awful! ( I think the word awful means full of awe , I picked it up when my elder brother was talking on the phone)  One such story is about Cyclops the magic bicycle with superpowers which has a life of its own. There is also this supercool school bag into which you can type what you want and the gift comes out in a cd tray! Cool right?

When I told my anna ( elder brother) all this only losers like me will read such stories. So I ran to my appa ( dad) and told him what anna said. Appa is very nice but takes my library books from my bag and read so very fast! I like to beat him by reading faster.

Appa said , ” So you want to become an author? What kind of books you want to write? ” I told him I want to write detective books as books on hostels ( like Mallory towers) were very sad. ” So a children’s author! You will be great at it Madhu.”

I was very shocked. I asked him don’t adults like him read Enid Blyton?!?! He said adults read about romance ( like Nancy Drew I think) , adult detectives and thrillers. I felt so dumb like a ‘loser’ anna thinks I am. It was like the time  I thought all books had illustrations in them ( which I think should be the ‘status quo’ )

But this is so exciting!! There are so many things I don’t know about books and I am called a book worm. I want to know about everything in the world as fast as I can. And be a not loser for once.

After a decade of quest for the all empowering knowledge and true realities she wished she were 11 again. To be that young and naive and full of madness and have the audacity to dream stories like ‘cyclops’. Madhumita of 2016 can never produce a cyclops. She would be stuck in the practicalities and perceptions of the readers.

Oh how I wish I were 11 again!

( Quandary – a difficult situation; a practical dilemma*)