Once we met an author Keen readers are not only interested in reading but also interested in meeting the author, knowing the author’s lifestyle and trying to understand what inspired the author to write. If you had a chance to met an author, would you miss it? Certainly not, right?
On April 23, 2021 most of the avid readers in our school attended a ‘Meet the Author’ session with Ms. Meenu Thomas, with great enthusiasm. She has written the well-known book Fakruddin’s Fridge published by Tulika and illustrated by Tanvi Bhat. It was originally written in Hindi and later translated into seven different languages.
Author Ms. Meenu Thomas
We were very excited to attend the session, especially to know how the author’s mind works to create a vivid picture with the help of the words. Our excitement before the session was limitless. Why limitless? Well, who doesn’t want to know the secret of translating a life experience into a story? Who do you think has the power to do it? Definitely an Author. As we hoped, she did share her secret but before that she drew our attention to a neglected section of a book. Have you ever read the credits and the details of the book? Most of us do not even notice such details. When we attended the session, Meenu ma’am showed us these neglected pages where the details of the publishers, a note by the author and name of illustrator are mentioned.
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The most exciting secret was revealed to us and that is …. From a young age she always maintained a diary collecting her experiences and observations. We all are fascinated to read picture books and we know that her picture books are fantastic. But do you know why? This is because cartoons, horror movies and her observations in her surroundings influenced her to write. Parita said “I really liked how she inspired me. She said to keep a note on the experience, challenges you face, which might help you in the future. I will surely do it from now on.”
Authors are quite mysterious, aren’t they? We understood this when Meenu ma’am told us that the book Fakruddin’s fridge is an outcome of her experiences. She told us that she grew up in Delhi. It was extremely hot in Delhi and she would always drink cold water from the fridge. Due to frequent power cuts she used to get frantic as she could not drink cold water. This is what inspired her to write this book. Our eagerness to know what is in the book was up to the brim and Yay! Judith mam started reading the book for all of us.
Allow us to give you a glimpse of the story: When Fakruddin worries, he gets frantic. And Frantic Fakru is now worried because his fridge is not working, the day is hot, and he is desperate for cold water. What does he do? We could definitely relate the story to Meenu ma’am’s experience. Rishi said, “The story was superb and it was a real incident which had happened with Meenu mam that’s what I liked the most.”
More light was thrown on different aspects of writing in the Q&A session. The questions of the students were thought-provoking and Meenu mam answered them with great alacrity. One of the curious students among us asked why she had written this story. Well, this book was actually a result of one of her masters’ level projects.
We were also surprised to hear her reason behind choosing the name Fakruddin for her protagonist. The reason she chose this name was that she wanted to represent different communities of India. Names like Fakruddin aren’t used frequently in children’s books, are they?
“ Well, the thing I liked the most about the author was that she was very modest and she even gave us the answers for all our questions by which we got to know her on a personal level” said Tanvi.
Once we met an author Ryan said “It was a marvelous experience. Meeting an author and listening to their real-life incidents is indeed a rare experience. I really loved the way the real-life incidents were put into the story.”
Truly, it was a fabulous learning experience for all of us. In three words the session was enthralling, illuminating and encouraging for all of us.
We all are thankful to our library for conducting such awesome sessions. This was our experience meeting an author, what about you? Let us know in the comments!
Co-written by Ryan Shah (std. 7), Parita Gosar (std. 8) Tanvi Deshpande (std. 8) Coordinated & Supported by Ms. Vinita Pal
Another learning experience for me as this was the first time I have worked in close association with these students via virtual mode,this gave me an insight as to how our students are passionate enough to do their work with a sense of responsibility.