Why this 13-year-old doesn't miss watching TV?

Earlier this year in April Delhibased graphic novel publishers Campfire had announced the winners of their annual Young Writer of the Year contest Five thousand entries flooded the juryrsquos inbox and the allIndia winner was 13yearold Sahir DrsquoSouza from Bandrarsquosu00a0Shishuvan School By Hook Or By Book 13yearold Sahir DrsquoSouza prefers the company of books and writing His favourite authors include Satyajit Ray and Anthony Horowitz PicSyed Sameer Abedi ldquoHe began writing early as soon as he was familiar with the alphabet I recall from 78 years back when Sahir would fill up diaries and books with his storiesrdquo says Dilip DrsquoSouza Sahirrsquos dad a celebrated author himself He adds how Sahir would create book covers from empty sheets of paper where he would add elements like lsquoOther titles by Sahir DrsquoSouzarsquo all imaginary of course as part of the booku00a0jacket design The panIndian title win sits comfortably on the talented teenager who is unperturbed about the buzz mdash ldquoI had written The Spirit and the Tree his winning story two years back When my dad had heard about this contest he suggested I send in my entry I changed the original ending and had it ready in two weekrsquos time I was a bit reluctant initially but dad urged me to give it a shotrdquo In fact Sahirrsquos parents mdash Dilip and Vibha were more ecstatic about the win the senior DrsquoSouza admits In course of our chat we also learn that the family doesnrsquot keep a TV set at home and are hoping that Surabhi their 8yearold daughter isnrsquot bitten by the telly bug In the same breath Dilip plays down his role in his sonrsquos progress as a writer ldquoI cant take any credit He loves reading The only feedback I gave him for this story was to avoid making it too dialoguedriven which was the case in some of his earlier writingrdquo By now Sahirrsquos mum joins in Vibha Kamat is cofounder of the MCubed Library a space for kids to read and borrow books Reminding Vibha of Sahirrsquos genes playing its role in his twin passions she laughs it off ldquoMy son is his own man reading and writing comes naturally to himrdquo Sourav Datta senior editor at Campfire Graphic Novels tells us that Sahir39s story caught the juryrsquos attention because of his effortless creation of a fantasy world ldquoHis story stood out from the rest in the way that the fantasy world faced issues that are relevant to us today and Sahir had managed admirably to maintain a slightly quirky and deeply human tonerdquo Sahir whose reading ranges from Anthony Horowitz to Roald Dahl and Satyajit Ray is happy that his story mdashabout a spirit who lives inside a tree will be adapted into a graphic novel Andy Dodd marketing head at Campfire elaborates ldquoSahirrsquos story as well as the stories of the four other class winners will be adapted into the graphic novel format and published as a collection by Campfire We are currently in the very early stages of adapting Sahirrsquos story but he will be involved at every stage of the processrdquo He explained that initially the editor working on his story will coordinate with Sahir over over phone and email for his thoughts on aspects of turning it into a graphic novel This will continue throughout so Sahir is in the loop with the process as well as the artworks Amid this Dilip is happiest that young writers like his son now have a platform as a result of such open contests ldquoA published graphic novel will do wonders for his confidence Especially since he had entered in writing competitions beforerdquo Dodd adds ldquoCampfire wants to encourage young people to discover the joys of reading and writing and books and storytelling All of these are connected and while some kids may be avid readers they often donrsquot get the opportunity to put their own ideas down on paper without any restrictions We love to see ideas that kids and teenagers are capable of and if we can offer a channel for young people to express themselves freely wersquove achieved our objectiverdquo