Narasimha Kumar

The Long Road Home - Stories and Poems Narasimha Kumar

This anthology of short stories and poems show a window into the creative world of India's best young writers and poets. These are the winning entries in the 2019 season of India's largest writing contest for children, conducted by KidEngage, a parenting platform for holistic child development. The stories and poems cover a wide range of themes - from the stark tales of struggle against climate change to a fantasy world in a dystopian future, from the 'coming-of-age' lessons being learned, to comical absurdity. The promise shown by these writers in their early teens is enormous and bodes well for Indian writing in future. Most of them already write with such an assurance that unless told, one wouldn't be able to guess the age of the writers in some cases. For instance, The 1st prize winning story 'The Long Road Home' by Varsha Raghuram (Carmel School, Bangalore) is almost Hemingwayesque, with its spare prose and unflinching look at human against nature. Such a distinctive style at an early age ! The Poetry Winner, "If you get stuck in a photograph" by Shreya Sethi (Mindtree School, Ambala) will amaze you with the poetic imagination on display. In short, reading these stories and poems will be quite a journey into different styles of writing and a varied tapestry of themes. The winners hail from all over India, and yet, one can discern they are all of the same global village. In some of the stories and poems, especially the ones that deal with a fantasy theme, one can see the child-like freshness and also the impact of the stories and movies they may have seen, with their universal themes. It is heartening to see so many young girls end up among the winners from among 4000+ entries. That climate change is one of the popular themes also shows where the priorities of this generation of children lie. There are 19 short stories and 11 poems in this anthology, and each entry is followed by a brief about the writer and her/his inspiration for writing, the books they love and their other interests. This is a must-have book in every school's library. It is also a great gift for a child who loves to read and write. By buying this book, you will be encouraging hundreds of young writers and poets in India. KidEngage is committed to bring out these anthologies every year from now on.