Vedansh : The Boy Writer from Sikkim
Seems like we have a wonderchild amidst us. Vedansh Agarwal, a Class Six Student in a Dehradun school, has just become a published author with his book, The Solved Mystery. We share his fascinating story.
The box of pasta – his top favourite — is ready, His mother is scurrying about checking out the last details before he sets out for school. Pasta is his favourite grub and mother Sonia has taken special care to pack it with the kind of vegetables he loves. She is doing everything with a smile that is just a veil over the tears that are brimming in her eyes. Vedansh will have to go to school today, and he will not return till three months later.
His father, Sanket Agarwal, is ready at the door, honking from his car. He has checked the dickie of the car… two suitcases of clothes… his books… all done. He honks again. Mom gives Vedansh a tight hug. “Go… Papa is waiting.”
Vedansh will have to go to school today, but he will not return till three months later. From Singtam to Dehradun, 1,662.9 kilometres. Class Six, at Welham School, Dehradun.
Out there in his Dehradun school, his House Master Sahil Kumar Bhardwaj is waiting. He has as his personal ward, on behalf of the school, five other boys for personal mentoring, but though dealing with all of them impartially, he does have a certain bit of warmth welling up in his heart when he thinks of Vedansh. Not every of his wards, after all, is a published author at the tender age of 12.
He named it The Solved Mystery, just recently published by BriBooks India Pvt Ltd. “He has always been interested in history,” recollects Devanshi, his elder sister, now studying her Law course, And she says also that he had a special interest in mysteries such as pirates. This seems strange. Because with the Teesta skirting a near-plains town in the awesomely beautiful Himalayan state of Sikkim, pirates could nowhere be around the corner, even remotely. But that teaches us a very valuable lesson that his father Sanket has for possibly all parents: just like the River Teesta has full play of her own and humanity has learned to live wherever the river has left space for us, Vedansh has also been allowed full play: his talents, his imagination, his grooming, his readings… that is how children should be dealt with. Rather, that is how we as parents should give ourselves a deal vis-à-vis our next generation. One must learn to recognise that they are the river which has allowed us to live on its banks. Instead, we do it the other way. Akhir, Baap kaun hain?
In Vedansh’s case it is father Sanket who mentored him, perhaps not as the traditional Baap, perhaps as a friend. Says Maa, Sonia Agarwal: “It is his father who looks after all his studies and how is growing up. I take care of the rest of the family affairs. It is my husband who tackles everything to do with his readings and his schooling.”
The Book
Whatever Sanket’s unique sense of schooling goes, it has landed son Vedansh writing a pirate book, sitting on the lap of the Teesta. So what is the story about? And is it a tiny tot’s childish fantasy with scribblings of pictures?
“It is the story of Captain John, a pirate, who roams across the world in search of treasures buried by kings and queens in different islands.”
In that one sentence from Sanket, we see how his daughter Devanshi’s understanding of her younger sibling has played off: it is not just a simple childish gibberish which the parents paid off a publisher as a vanity publication. For Devanshi had told me that bro Vedansh was always interested in history. So there came the kings and queens and their hidden treasures from, given just a twist by the young author.
As of now, I have not been able to lay my hands on the book, but for sure, it was not a vanity publication paid off by parents trying to pull the attention of family and friends, wanting to show off: “Here… look… my son is a genius!”
No. Though this happens with many kids, that was not the case with Vedansh.
Says Sanket Agarwal: “It is a pictorial book, with his story, but the pictures were created by the publishers themselves, keeping him and his story into account, and that is how the book happened.”
But it struck me that in today’s world of “Chota Bhim”, or K-pop bands like BTS, or even the crass and violent Japanese cartoons such as Black Butler, a world where the only recognisable king is Britain’s King Charles, and no Captain Cook or Captain John anywhere within the radar of young imaginations, how did the fresh mind of a Class Six boy conjure up such a story?
“As far as I know, he is majorly into reading stories, and that too of a certain kind. Whenever he gets his mobile, he loves reading historical books, be it Ramayan, or Mahabharat, or be it about the Goths and all that. So my hunch is that in all his readings, he might have come across pirates… may be there were people like Captain John and kings and queens who hid their treasures, and Captain John went hunting for those treasures. His school wanted the students to write stories as part of their Summer Book Camp. And that is when he wrote this small story. He might have got some inputs from his sister, who studied history for her 12th standard Board exams. But I am not sure of that. Because it was only after his sister went off to college after her holidays that Vedansh told me one day that he has started writing this story, and he said that he will finish it over the next four or five days.
Mobile Menace
I found this interesting and I asked father, Sanket. “You gave him a mobile at such a young age when the small screen has become a universal menace…”
“I gave him a mobile phone at Class Six. I drop him off to Bagdogra airport, and though his school picks him up at Dehradun airport, he has to travel alone till Dehradun. So in the interest of his security I had to give him a mobile phone. And his sister has full control over his phone, having downloaded all the needed apps, and she has even put in the parental control. She was a Class 12 topper from Dehradun and currently in third year of studying law. Nut in school she had history and Vedansh would love reading history too.
So what was Papa Sanket’s contribution towards Vedansh writing the book?
“I did not read a single line of this book till it was published. During his summer holidays, I told him, ‘son you have this task of finishing a book’, and he said, ‘I know, Papa, and I am looking for new words and new sentences for the book’. So that might have been my only contribution. May be he felt that Papa wants me to write a book and I am good at writing so I must do this book. But that is all. I got to read the book only after it was published. Once it came to the market, I bought a copy. And I was so happy that I wrote about it in my Facebook page and in Instagram and a lot of my friends bought the book.”
But Vedansh’s mother, Sonia insists that beyond her husband’s modesty, it is Sanket who has had a very large influence on the child. “He always told Vedansh to do be creative, to do something original.” Sonia says that pretty early in his childhood Vedansh had shown much promise, and he gained his self-confidence as the years went by. This same aspect of Vedansh’s persona was brought out by his House Master Sahil Bhardwaj. Asked what special thing he found in Vedansh, he said: “You see, Vedansh is a very sincere child with a highly matured thought process and communication skills. He has excellent leadership qualities and he is the Oliphant House Captain (Junior School). In fact we teachers do not chose the captain, he was elected by the fellow students of the house to be their captain.”
Didi’s Child
But Devanshi, his elder sister, was pretty much categorical. “He always looked up to me. He would read whatever I read and would ask so many questions. I think the book that he has written has been largely influenced by me. When he was writing the book, he was categorical how he wanted to go about it. He said he did not what to write something like ‘once upon a time’. He was clear that such books bored him and he did not want to bore the reader. I was not involved with his storyline at all. I just corrected his grammar here and there. But since childhood he was always writing something or the other. He had a great passion for writing.”
Devanshi, studying law now, was herself a student of history and was particularly interested in philosophy and art history, but though she says she is not aware why Vedansh chose a pirate’s story, she did share a very keen observation, saying that Vedansh from childhood was extremely fond of water…. So was it water = seas = pirates, with her own studies of kings and queens and their histories? No one is sure. But that is a very important point: we need to observe children more than be a father, mother or didi.
I asked Sanket Agarwal: “Traditionally, grandparents, especially grandmothers actually fuel a child’s imagination by telling fairytales. So, was there some such factors in him developing a liking for story telling?”
“Absolutely! Since early childhood he would sit with his grandparents watching Ramayan and Mahabharat. He loved that and would sit with his grandfather, Raghubir Agarwal. And my mother Nirmala Devi used to sing our traditional songs, so that effect was very much there. They both had a very large influence on Vedansh’s thinking.”
His Choice
Actually even Vedansh has no clear idea why he chose a pirate as the main character of his book. “Most children want to write about fairytales.” The child told me. “But I wanted to write something more realistic. And when I was trying to decide on a theme for my Summer Book Camp, I was reading many things, and I came upon some pirate stories. That is how it happened.”
It was a saving grace that Vedansh had not heard of Mills & Boon or such books. But when I asked that given a choice, would he write a love story or a pirate kind of story, he was clear that he has more interest in books like the one he has written. He has read two or three books of Ruskin Bond though, and he is very fond of them. And for the record, his next book is going to be on a holiday.
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