At an age when kids have just begun to string sentences together, this 7-year-old has become India’s youngest author. Guwahati’s Aayan Shandilya has written ‘Once Upon A Time” a collection of 10 short stories inspired from his real life experiences and anecdotes.
Noted author Mitra Phukan described the book as full of wonder, joy and sadness that will appeal to all.
Speaking with inuth.com, Aayan’s mother Rituparna Pandey said,” Bringing out that book was not a conscious decision. He had written a few stories and we had encouraged him to write a few more. We told him that if there are 10-12 stories, we can get a book published. These are very small short stories based on his real life experiences, like how once he went to the Manas National Park.”
A student of class 2 from Don Bosco School, Guwahati, Aayan loves to read and play with toy guns in his spare time.
“When I am not studying I play with my toy guns and Hot Wheel collections, and I also read books. I read Geronimo Stilton’s books, books about dinosaurs and encyclopedia books. I also tell stories to my friends,” Aayan said.
While Aayan’s parents are quite happy with his grades, they believe putting undue pressure on kids only harm them in the long term.
“Children are under so much pressure these days. Pressure is mainly coming from parents. They want their children to excel in each and everything like music, sports, academics. We have parents pulling the children from one class to another, from sports class to music class, and all that but we have never pressurised Aayan. We just want him to get respectable grades, to ensure his concepts are clear. He just has to be a good, compassionate human being,” Aayan’s mother said underlining the need for kids to lead a stress-free life.
