SHALINI SAKSENA chats up seven-year-old ABHIJITA GUPTA, world’s youngest author and the first Indian kid to ink a four-book deal
I am busy drawing,” say the voice of a seven-year-old at the other end of the phone. There is nothing surprising there. That is what is expected of a child that age. But there is nothing normal about this little girl as one would not expect a seven-year-old to sign a deal with Invincible for her four upcoming books and receive a part of the royalty payment for the first 10,000 copies of her book. Meet Abhijita Gupta who has unveiled the cover of her second book — We Will Surely Sustain.
Gupta has been recognised as the world's youngest author by the International Book of Records and The Asia Book of Records has conferred on her title of the Grandmaster in Writing. According to the India Book of Records, she is the youngest author to write poetry and prose.
Gupta began writing at age five. Hailing from the third generation of the renowned poet — Rashtrakavi Maithilisharan Gupt and Santkavi Siyaramsharan Gupt, Gupta has a flair for creativity. She penned her first book amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Titled Happiness All Around, it is a book that has short stories and poems with illustrations. The kids love reading this one. The only daughter of proud parents — Ashish Gupt and Anupriya Gupta, Gupta lives in Ghaziabad and studies in Class II, Presidium School Indirapuram.
She tells you that she doesn't know when and how she got interested in writing but just one day she came up with a story that she wanted to write and asked her parents for a pencil and notebook. “From that day onwards, I developed interest in expressing myself and there has been no stopping me. I love to write. But it doesn’t mean that I write all the time. Sometimes, there are days when I don’t write anything; then there are times when I write late into the night. Not that I am forced to. My parents, in fact, want me to enjoy myself. But they also understand that I need to express myself and support me,” Gupta tells you.
Her mother, Anupriya, an engineer- turned-entrepreneur tells you that they never force their daughter to write. “We want her to have a normal childhood and enjoy doing things that kids this age are interested in. She is the one who gets down to writing at odd hours of the day. Sometimes, she will write at night. We are extremely proud of her and will continue supporting her in every leg of her writing journey,” Anupriya says.
Believe it or not but this author doesn’t need anybody's help when she gets stuck while writing and tells you that she doesn’t go to anybody when she has no idea how to proceed further. She just racks her brains and begins from scratch.
She tells you how writing her book was literally a child’s play since she loves writing. “I didn’t have any problems because writing is something which I love to do. I get ideas from my surroundings, whatever I see, hear or feel. Since I love to write, it doesn’t matter whether it is prose or poetry,” She says.
Strangely enough she doesn’t want to be a writer when she grows up even though English is her favourite subject. “I want to be a pediatrician so that I can help needy people but yes I will continue writing as a hobby. I see so many people who don’t get proper treatment because they can’t afford the fees. I want to be a doctor and help such people,” Gupta says.
Her first book was received with much fanfare among her friends and family. “They are excited and happy to read my books,” says Gupta, who launched her second book last week.
Titled We Will Surely Sustain, the book is about the pandemic affected life of kids during this period.
“I decided to write this because I feel that all the kids must have gone through a difficult phase and so was I and I thought of expressing this through this book. And the money that I will get, I will donate some of it to the needy people,” Gupta says.
