Small wonder: How this 12-year old author is inspiring young minds
From writing short stories to publishing his book, read about this young author and his novel, The Wanderers – The Sound of the Lake.
While most 12-year-old students work on their English compositions and maths calculations at school, this youngster from Indore has been busy of late, counting the number of copies that his new book has sold.
Sarthak Rathi has a written and published a book, titled, ‘The Wanderers – The Sound of the Lake’. This is the first book of the five books in the Wanderers series.
The book which was published last month has sold around 500 copies, including online and offline and is at number four in the Sci-fi category on Amazon.
Sarthak (right) with his mother, father and brother
Inspiration behind the book
As a young writer born with special skills for storytelling, Sarthak first started writing at the age of eight years with some short stories and blogs. At the age of 10, he started writing his first fiction book and completed it on his 12th birthday.
"Sarthak has been a voracious reader since the age of five. He can finish a 200-page book in three or four hours. He creates his own world in his mind, and writes naturally without seeking support from any other medium. We support him with a silent room and a laptop, that's it," says his mother, Vanita Rathi.
Sarthak is a class eight student at Emerald heights international School, Indore and lives with his parents, brother and grandfather. A fan of fiction and science fiction, his favourite authors are J.K Rowling and Amish Tripathi.
Talking about his inspiration behind writing the book, Sarthak says, “I have been writing short stories, since the age of eight. Some of my short stories had common characters. So, I thought I could use these stories and characters to write a book.”
It all however started years back when his mother got irritated at his speed of reading and refused to buy him a new book. She asked him to write a book for himself. Sarthak took it seriously and started writing a story on his laptop. After a year his parents realized that his writing skills were most natural and storytelling style is unique.
Sarthak went on to publish the book, named The Wanderers. He is in the process of writing his second book of the series, which he plans to complete by his next birthday.
The Wanderers is a story about four people who goes on to a cycling tour and how they uncover a plan about a woman who plans to take over the world.
Not a smooth run
It was however not easy for Sarthak in the initial days. “It was difficult in the beginning to convince my parents to get the book published, as they did not want me to disturb my studies or spoil the results,” says Sarthak.
Sarthak Rathi
One of his favourite bookstores in Indore is ‘Readers Paradise’. Hunaid, the owner was the one who motivated him to write and helped him find his first publisher. Ahiraj, at the publisher's office too was also very supportive and guided him at every stage of publishing the book, right from editing to designing the book.
“Writing a book is energising for me. I love the process. These challenges seem like adventures to me. I can stay in my own world of fantasy, which keeps me away from negative things in the real world. For example, I often get scolded for my bad handwriting which I don’t like. I also get compared to my overly genius brother, which I don't like. But with writing, I can roam around and do things in my world of adventure which I really wish to do someday,” says Sarthak.
He had to rewrite the drafts several times and it took him almost a year to shape up the characters and backgrounds.
What next?
His book The Wanderers has been appreciated by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, Paytm, Manu Kumar Jain, MD and Vice President Xiomi India and Shradha Sharma, CEO, Yourstory.
It got great response from his family as well as from his school too. The school authorities had also decided to display it during the Parents-Teachers meeting.
Sarthak’s parents too are happy about his achievements and believe that supporting their children in their talents is the best thing they can do for their kids.
Sarthak's book is one of the top four in the science fiction category on Amazon
"Both of us are Chartered Accountants, but both our children are pursuing their passions. Sarthak is a natural storyteller, and his elder brother is into physics research in the USA' s top university. If we support the natural talents of children, they can do wonders," says his father, Piyush Rathi.
When asked about the future plans, Sarthak says that though he has some ideas and plots of a book in mind to write about in the future, nothing has been finalised yet. He is currently focussed on completing his Wanderer series.
