Seven-years-old pens non-fiction piece

A seven-year-old Jiya Gangadhar penned her first book titled 'L is for Lockdown - Jiya's Journal of Lockdown Lessons'. A student of Ekya Schools JP Nagar proved that writing can be a fun filled activity if you have the passion for it.

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 diary. Today the selected stories from her diary have 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.

The debut author said, "When the lockdown was announced, I started the 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 diary. When my mother read the diary 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!"

"We were happy to see a book authored by one of our students getting published. Jiya had imbibed a good habit of writing her diary daily and the effort of her mother to recognise 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. We always encourage such exceptional qualities in children" says Sreepriya Unnikrishnan, Principal, Ekya School JP Nagar

Jiya's class teacher helped them to find the publisher and the book is published by Blue Rose Publishers, Delhi.

Jiya says her favorite author is Jeff Kinney, (The author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid). "The entire process of selecting stories and publishing took almost one year's time" she adds

Talking about her future plans Jiya Gangadhar shares: "I want to continue writing and become an author when I grows up. Also, I want to become a YouTuber and do vlogs on gaming" she concludes.

Currently, Jiya is all prepped up to write her second book. The book is available on ecommerce website Amazon India.