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Weaving a world of make-believe
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Shreya Devnath of Chennai won the third prize in the Classmate Young Author Contest
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PHOTO: V. GANESAN
A WAY WITH WORDS Shreya Devnath
Young Sarika falls apart when her parents file for divorce. A sense of loneliness sets in. Delusions and hallucinations creep in to fill this void. Telling the story of this schizophrenic girl, Shreya Devnath, a Standard X student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School, has won the third prize in the Classmate Young Author Contest 2005. Over 1,20,000 children took part in CYAC 2005 that concluded recently. Shreya Maheshwari from Lucknow won the first prize and a free trip a London. Megha Bagaria from Kolkata won the second prize.
In the Chennai leg of the contest, Shreya had to choose from four topics - Incognito, Dream Factory, Clueless and Chain Reaction - and write a story on the spot. She picked `Incognito' and wove a tale about a school-going girl who is emotionally disturbed and withdrawn from reality.
Shreya displayed a genius for portraying the quintessential schizophrenic, but, truth be told, she thoroughly researched the psychotic disorder only after she had written the story. "I was happy to find that the descriptions and the characterisation were in line with the condition."
Shreya tells Sarika's story through "a narrator who does not exist". As her mother is caught up in the exhausting exercise of putting her emotional life on track, Sarika's world is filled with "friends" and tag and blind man's buff. However, the maid is concerned when she sees Sarika playing with children who can't be seen. When the mother is informed about Sarika's strange behaviour, she brushes it aside as a sign of adolescence. Sooner than later, even the mother realises something is amiss and seeks medical help. The doctor tells the mother about the medicine that Sarika should take. This treatment does the trick. Sarika no longer plays with her fantasy friends. Or, does she?
Sarika has overheard the doctor's instructions and decides to be discreet. She talks to her friends only when nobody is watching and, not wanting to take any chance, her voice falls to a whisper. And, she flings away the pills that are offered to her. The story ends with Sarika saying, "I'll always be with my friends and we'll always be incognito."
In the finals (held in Mumbai), which was judged by a jury headed by author Ruskin Bond, Shreya's was one of 16 stories (to be published by Rupa & Co). The finalists were also marked on the basis of answers to questions from the jury. "They read out a few phrases and asked if they were pre-conceived or written on the spot. I read them one of my poems `It Happened One Night' which is about a man who looks down upon those who are lower in the caste hierarchy. One night he falls down a ditch and is rescued by a lowborn man. Thanks to this incident, he turns over a new leaf and now all people are equal in his eyes".
Shreya's mother Lakshmi Devnath, a writer herself, says her daughter is creatively inclined - "she learns to play the violin from Lalgudi Jayaraman and enjoys painting". The ability to write showed much earlier - "She has been writing stories since age five. She would write them simply for the joy of writing and dump them. Always, while clearing the dustbin, you will find one of her stories."
PRINCE FREDERICK
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