3 books of poetry & she’s only 13

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: At thirteen, Amana has not one but three books of poetry to her name. Her first, Echoes of Soulful, is a collection of 64 poems. A second anthology followed soon after with 115 poems. Her third book of poetry, ‘ World admits the Word,” was launched by the Karnataka Governor on Wednesday. And yes, she’s only 13!!

The ‘Cottonian’ – she is a student at Bishop Cotton Girls’ School – who lives in Bengaluru with her parents has turned a hobby that began during the pandemic lockdown into a huge success story. A selfprofessed bibliophile, Amana has a collection of some 400 books. “It started in 2020, when I was terribly bored and used to badger my mom for entertainment. My mom turned around and said that since I read so many books, why didn’t I try writing poems or stories of my own? That’s where it all began. She sowed the seed in my head, and it had me going back and forth, crafting special lines, which finally turned into three books of poems.”

Her third book of poetry, ‘World Admits the World’ is a word fest of 155 poems on nature, the pandemic, family, laced with horror and humour, references to God and literature, an emotional roller coaster which examines war and peace, the nation, love and many other themes. Amana credits her school with helping her hone her writing skills, admitting that her ability to tackle examinations without getting stressed about scoring top marks gives her the mind space to work on her poetry. Amana’s approach to writing poetry is not just intuitive but involves poring through her books.