Dish of realism, garnish of fantasy: This 10-year-old detests fairytales but her debut novella is a dreamy wish come true

Charunainika is a Class V student and YouTuber from Kozhikode who recently released her first book, The Unknown Friend. In a free-wheeling chat, she tells us all about it
Charunainika with her book 'The Unknown Friend' | Pic: Sourced
Charunainika with her book 'The Unknown Friend' | Pic: Sourced

The age-old adage advises us to never long to meet one's heroes since if we do, we wouldn't appreciate the real person behind that heroic facade. That the bubble would burst right before our eyes. Pop!

But what if our heroes end up meeting us instead? One can go as far as to call that a cool karmic act that rubs on us in the most pleasing way. That is just what happened to ten-year-old Charunainika AL of Silver Hills Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode of Kerala. 

A Class V student, she has her own YouTube channel called Doodle Charu, where she reads and reviews books that catch her liking. One of her favourite reviews was on the book The Elephant written by Australian author and illustrator Peter Carnavas. The review by Charu, as she is more fondly known, caught the attention of Peter himself. The author wrote back to her via email, encouraging her to read more and even write stories of her own. And Charu was one who took the message straight to the heart and not long after that she set to work on her own work of fiction. 

Anjali Chandran, her mother, recalls, "During the second COVID lockdown, my husband and I would find ourselves very busy with work and we couldn't spare time to help Charu. But as it turned out, she didn't really need much of our assistance anyway. Besides reading, she also loves to draw and that's how she came up with the illustrations for her book. All we did was correct the spelling mistakes after each chapter she wrote and the rest was all her." And voilà! Charu released her book The Unknown Friend just last month and we caught up with the debut author to know more about her and her work.

A chat with Charu
"The book is like a dish of realism with a garnish of fantasy, as I would like to call it," Charu tells when asked to describe her book in one line. The book is indeed a work of magical realism which has taken inspiration from her own school life. The fantasy bits include elements regarding a boarding school, which is completely imagined on Charu's part, but at the same time, she "didn't want to make it like traditional fairy tales where if something bad happens, then twice the good occurs at the end." She emphasises, "I wanted it to sound like how it happens in real life." She also made it a point to include inspirational themes like "the never-ending nature of hope" in The Unknown Friend. 

In more ways than one, the main character is exactly like Charu herself, except for the fact that she is based out of a boarding school. Charu almost adamantly distinguishes her work from fairy tales that contain a summarising moral at the end. "The book contains various elements of love, trust and hope between the characters that cannot be combined in a single moral statement," Charu remarks upon this facet of the book.

Charu was also let in on the reading habit that was cultivated in her by her grandparents who would read her stories when she was younger. Besides reading, she recalls that she began to love drawing when she was just two and a half years old. "That is why I simply didn't want to hire anyone else to do the artwork for my book. I even designed the logo for my YouTube channel," she says proudly. 

Charu's mother Anjali also delved into the real-life issues that the book talks about. "I was taken aback by the experiences she shares in the book and I learnt a lot from her. I especially learnt that we should not underestimate their young, impressionable minds," she says. 

Anjali also thanks the principal of Charu's school, Father Dr Biju John Vellakkada, for encouraging her to pen down her thoughts and experiences at such a young age. "I feel every school should foster an environment that promotes the talents of every child studying there. Without the support of the principal and teachers, Charu wouldn't have been able to do what she has. Parents also need to sit down and listen to their children's troubles. I feel that a good mix of parenting and support at school is what is crucial," Anjali says. 

The Unknown Friend may just be the first of many books that young Charu writes, but as author and professor, Arunlal Mokeri reviews, the novella provides a "perfect antidote to the pandemic-stricken world, ruled by pessimism and doubts."

Interested folks can buy Charu's book from Flipkart at https://bit.ly/3jDROVD.

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