Adapt to suit changing child mindset - Twinklinka author

By Anuradha KODAGODA

Although it is not quite difficult a task to write stories for children, but it is quite challenging to write a good, readable story which could fascinate children’s imagination. Janaki Sooriyaarachchi, a young ‘story teller’, who has inborn talent of story telling and written more than 200 stories to enrich the imaginative skills in the younger generation of our country.

Following are excerpts of an interview with Janaki by Sunday Observer.

Q: What is ‘Twinklinka’?

A: It is the new digital story book which I have published recently. ‘Twinklinka’ can be read by anybody in the world just by browsing my website www.tikiri.com. Since childhood, I liked Disney films and read books a lot. Even though digital books are very common in other countries, it is quite a novel experience for our children.

Even though digital technology is quite novel to our literature culture and therefore it is a good sign that our children are quite familiar with the technologies due to the increase in computer usage. However, this has badly affected for the interest of younger generation. Therefore, it’s our duty to make our children familiar with literature without demoralizing their willingness to use digital technology as well. ‘Twinklinka’ is a good example how to influence children to read good literature by using digital technology.

Q: Your stories are based on various topics, such as science, environment and fairytales. Who else help you to keep this variety in your stories?

A: My mother and brother help me to develop my stories. I have few friends who always encourage and criticise me on my work. However, all the concepts and storylines have developed by myself. For me creating a story is like seeing a dream which I cannot explain. I never can write a story by force but it should come in to my mind like a dream. Sometimes I have written five or six stories within a day, but there are times I couldn’t write a single story at all for months at a stretch.

Q: Why do you want to become a writer?

A: I never dreamt of becoming a writer. I wrote my first story book when I was 8. At that age I didn’t know what is meant by a writer.

When I grow older I wanted to become an astronomer. However, according to my higher educational qualifications, finally I had to become a banker which I was never dreamt about. I have resigned from the banking industry because of my fondness in writing stories for little ones.

Q: How is the response for your science fictions?

A: Children are very much fond of science fictions. When I was writing ‘Pitasakwala Kumaraya’ I thought children won’t read it, but my intention was to share what I know about Astronomy. I was quite surprised the responses I got for this story and ‘Pitasakwala Kumaraya’ has become some children’s best story book in their story books collection. I think this method can be used in schools in the literature class in a creative manner to explain this kind of complicated subjects in schools.

Q: Why do you want to bring your stories into the internet?

A: Few years ago University of Maryland in the USA used one of my stories for their project and that was the first time my story appeared on the internet.

They usually feature books on their web site on a monthly basis. In a month, one of my story books got selected out of thousands of children’s stories and it continued to appear throughout that month on their website. With that my story books got popular not only among Sri Lankan children but among foreign children as well.

Recently another American university has selected two of my books for their child psychology and educational research. Being a person from a small country, it is a great achievement to get recognition for the hard work from a recognised university in the world.

Three of my story books namely Emyrosy, Finbo and Daffodeelia have been selected in an Indian literature website for their top ten list and with the popularity these three stories now has been translated into several other languages. Sometimes I’m so surprised to realise the popularity of my stories.

Q: What is your opinion on the standard of children’s literature in the country?

A: Considering the socio-economic conditions of our country, I would say the children’s literature is at a higher level when compared to the other developing countries in the world.

However, we have to improve a lot. Through children’s literature we can do a lot for the betterment of our children. For that we have to have a good vision. We have to be conscious about the changing world because we have to understand that a child mindset is also changing according to changes they experience in their atmosphere.

Now we are living in a digital world and we should not forget that this world belongs to our children. Therefore, we have to find the best medium to get into the child’s mind to cultivate virtues and wisdom.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: I am not too ambitious because I’m afraid of losing my aspirations. I have little dreams rather hopes and everyday I work towards achieving them which makes me happy. I always want to live happily and simply without harming or hurting anyone.