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Tale of a lazy leaf by a happy boy
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Ten-year-old Samrudh Canpadee's award-winning short story has a leaf as its protagonist
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A STORYTELLER AT 10 Samrudh Canpadee PHOTO: S. THANTHONI
When you turn ten, you perhaps develop an ability to write a story on just about anything. Ten-year-old Samrudh Canpadee has written an award-winning story which has a leaf as its central character. Samrudh's short story "Leafy and Frens" won Disney Channel's all-India "Start Your Story Contest" and free tickets for him and his family to the Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
Samrudh is a storyteller partly because his mother Geetha's sphere of influence extends beyond his playtime as well. She prevailed on him to give part of it to reading literary fiction. Although Geetha herself is a writer, Samrudh has borrowed little from her writing style.
Distinct approach
His approach to storytelling is distinct — he `draws' his ideas and based on these sketches, weaves a tale. Samrudh adopted the brush-and-pen method of storytelling, after reading stories such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl and "The Little Prince" by Saint Antoine-Expury. He used the computer to draw the images for his prize-winning story. A drawing of a leaf with limbs complements a short biographical note on Leafy, a lazy leaf that enjoys "playing tricks on his teachers and friends". When a teacher tries to give naughty Leafy a rap over the knuckles, he flies away. Knowing his folks would be informed about his intransigent behaviour, he chooses to stay away from his house — a slanting tree with five other leaves, whom he calls "his bad cousins" and who try to keep a hold on him. This decision opens the door to a series of events that leads him to another house called Hot-N-Cold Home — where regimentation gives way to cooperation and work ceases to be a chore.
In this house live three other runaways — Reck, a remote control, Biskiti, a biscuit with four legs made of wafer and ice-cold Kulfi, all of whom are portrayed through paint and ink. Together, the four dodge Wolfy, who wants to make a meal of them.
The story is punctuated with scientific concepts — such as Leafy drinking Sun-light Soup and eating Chlorophyllie cookies and Kulfi melting when the day gets hotter and hotter and Leafy taking Kulfi to a snow-clad mountain to ensure his friend stays in shape and the life force leaving Leafy when he is stationed on the same mountain.
Samrudh says he chose the leaf because it is the least written about.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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