Category Personalities

What is the story of Hugh Lofting?

Whether it is Peter Rabbit, Peppa the Pig or Winnie the Pooh, stories of talking animals are an integral part of our childhood. And the doctor who has an ability to talk to and understand animals holds a special place in our heads.

Doctor Dolittle first appeared in Hugh Lofting’s book. “The Story of Doctor Dolittle” in 1920, and was republished almost annually thereafter, as were many of the 11 other books in the series. But the character’s popularity grew because of the film versions – starring Eddie Murphy and the latest, Robert Downey Jr.

Who was Hugh Lofting?

A civil engineer by training, Lofting created children’s literature’s classic character Doctor Dolittle from the British Army trenches during World War I. He often wrote letters to his children from the battlefield. On their request, he began including drawings of animals were mistreated in the army. For instance, injured horses were shot dead and not treated. He imagined that humans would be less cruel towards animals if they could read their minds or communicate with them. And so he wrote stories of talking animals in his letters. These letters formed the basis of “The Story of Doctor Dolittle.”

Different faces of Doctor Dolittle

Even a century after his creation, Doctor Dolittle remains a popular character in children’s literature. However, the good doctor has undergone many transformations over the years as the books were adapted to be silver screen multiple times.

In the book, Lofting depicted Dolittle as a portly physician living in the Victorian era. He starts a veterinary practice after learning the secret of speaking to his parrot Polynesia. As his fame spreads throughout the animal world, he sets off on wild adventures across the world.

The first three books in the series were merged into a 1967 Hollywood film starring Rex Harrison as the doctor. Though this film did not do well at the box office, it won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song.

It was the comedian Eddie Murphy who immortalized the nutty titular character in the 1998 version of the film “Dr. Dolittle”. The film’s success spawned many sequels and spin-offs.

The latest version of the doctor is played by Robert Downey Jr. in “Dolittle” which released earlier this year.

  • Oh really?
  • Lofting’s experience in the army trenches turned him against war and the glorification of combat, including in children’s books. In 1942, he published “Victory for the Slain,” an epic poem about the futility of war.
  • “The Story of Doctor Dolittle” won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. The sequel “The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle” won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal in 1923. Eight more books followed during his lifetime, however, two more were published posthumously. They contained short previously unpublished pieces. Lofting passed away on September 26, 1947.

 

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What is the contribution of radical nationalist-turned-spiritual guru Aurobindo Ghose to India’s Freedom Struggle?

Aurobindo Ghose was one of India’s prominent freedom fighters, who spearheaded several struggles for our nation to break free from the shackles of bondage from the British. He was born on August 15, 1872 and pursued his schooling in England. The writing of P.B. Shelley and his romantic idealization of the French evolution influenced his thinking early on in his life.

Subsequently he enrolled in King’s College, Cambridge, where he was drawn to lrish nationalistic beliefs, and saw their relevance to the Indian situation. He was particularly attracted to Charles Stewart Parnell’s ideology, which made him perceive India as an enslaved nation, a “mother in chains”.

On his return to India in 1893, he threw himself into the Indian struggle for Independence. He expounded on its importance for achieving the goals of universal brotherhood and equality among all beings. He was just 21 years old at the time!

As a nationalist revolutionary, he was charged with ‘conspiracy to wage war against the ‘Emperor’ for his involvement in the Alipore Bombing case in 1908. It was an offence punishable with death by hanging, and he was accused of it along with his brother Barin Ghosh. Even before this case, Aurobindo was acquitted, while his brother was found quality. During the trial, the brothers were held in police custody illegally and had to endure much torture. When he walked out of jail, he was a spiritually transformed man, he swore of violence and politics, and quietly moved to Poundicherry, to begin a new life and embark on a spiritual quest. There, he practiced Yoga in seclusion for four continuous years, and slowly developed his philosophy of ‘Integral Yoga’.

He was 75 years old when our country attained Independence. This was the dream he had envisioned for his motherland, since he was a teenager. His philosophy still lives in the hearts of millions of Indians all over the world even today.

 

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How Deepa Agarwal creates her books?

Deepa Agarwal was born in the beautiful small town of Almora in Uttarakhand, and thanks to her book lover parents – her father, a doctor, and her mother, a school teacher, she became an avid reader. “My parents read to us regularly and provided us with a variety of books. I became such an avid reader that it was inevitable that I end up writing my favourite in school and I always entered any essay competition and often won prizes. I consider the authors that I admire my source of inspiration,” says the writer. She is one of India most prolific writers for the young, with 30 books in three decades of writing! Two of them have been out this year itself – “Blessed” and “Friendship Stories”. Let’s find out how she creates her books.

Writing tips for budding writers

Deepa Agarwal says that her mantra for good writing stems from a whole lot of reading! So, yes, read a lot. “The more you read, the better writer you will be,” she explains. Besides that, she also:

  • Maintain an ideas notebook. Some story idea but are not in position to write times you get a story idea but are not in a position to write it. Save your ideas to develop them  when you have time.
  • Keep a diary. As in sports and music, good writing needs a lot of practice. Keeping a diary means you are writing every day. Record incidents that made an impression on you and your emotional response to the. This could be valuable material in the future.
  • Remember that each story begins with a problem the main character has to solve. She/he will receive help from friends and face opposite from enemies. The attempts to solve this problem create the story.
  • “Where”, “when”, “who”, “why”, and “how”, are important questions in your story and you should provide this information of your readers.
  • The main characters need to be developed in debit to be credible. Show action rather than report it.
  • Dialogue should be natural to the characters.

When you have completed your story, revise, revise and revise!

And there’s not a moment to waste, seems to be the guiding philosophy for Deepa. “ I have two middle readers in the pipeline. One is a retold collection titled ‘Mahabharata Stories’ being published by HarperCollins India. The other, which will be out early next year, is a non-fiction, an account of the exploration of Tibet by legendary surveyor Nain Singh Rawat , titled ‘Journey to the Forbidden City’, to be published by Puffin.”

The writer’s routine

With a repertoire like that, Deepa Agarwal does have a disciplined writing routine. Most days she tries to settle down to her writing around 11.30 a.m., takes a short break for lunch and works for a couple more hours in the afternoon. “Many of my ideas come from real life – incidents that leave a mark or overheard conversations. Sometimes inspiration comes in the form of an opening sentence or a character. My recent nook ‘Blessed’ was sparked off by the image of girl disappearing into a hidden space. For longer works of fiction, I create a plot outline to stay on course, but for my short stories, I let the characters develop on their own and choose their actions. Poetry, of course, is usually spontaneous,” she reveals. That’s interesting don’t you think-having a different working style for different branches of writing?

Deepa Agarwal’s books

  • Three Days to Disaster
  • Anita and the Game of Shadows
  •  The Tricky Tales of Vikram and the Vetal
  • Caravan to Tibet
  • Folk Tales of Uttarakhand
  • Chandrakanta
  • Rani Lakshmibai
  • Write Right
  • Rajula and the Web of Danger
  • Ghost Stories Vol I
  • Chanakya, the Master of Statecraft
  • Spinning Yarns: The Best Children’s Stories from India
  • The Wish-fulfilling Cow and Other Classic Indian Tales
  • Go, Girl, Go!
  • 100 Great Poems for Children
  • Words to live By: The Best of Indian Non-fiction for Children
  • Listen, O King!: Five-and-Twenty Tales of Vikram and the Vetal
  • Best Stories from Around the World
  • Scholastic Book of Hindu Gods and Goddess
  • Sacked: Folktales You Can Carry Around
  • Blessed
  • Friendship Stories
  • A Capital Adventure
  • Everyday Tales
  • Traveller’s Ghost
  • The Hunt for the Miracle Herb
  • Ghosts Everywhere
  • The Hilltop Mystery
  • Not Just Girls!

Bet you didn’t know that though Deepa writes in English, she only began to speak English fluently at the age of seven when she went to boarding school.

Bet you didn’t know that (this may sound positively pre-historic, she confesses) she had never dialed a number on a telephone till she was 16! They lived in a very small town had no telephone at home.

 

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Who was Agatha Christie?

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, in the United Kingdom. She was the daughter of a wealthy American stockbroker, who died when she was only eleven, years old. Her mother taught her at home, encouraging her to write at a very young age.

When she was 16, she went to finishing school, in Paris to study singing and piano. In 1914, at age 24, she married, Colonel, Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. White he went away to war, she worked as a nurse and wrote her first novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (1920), which wasn’t published until four years later. After her husband came back from the war, they had a daughter. However, in 1928, she divorced him and married Sir Max Mallowan, an archaeologist. She travelled, with him to various digs and several of her novels were set in the Middle East. Most of her other novels, though, were set in a fictionalised, Devon.

Christie and her characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have become icons of “whodunnit” detective fiction. She is said to be the best-selling novelist of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, with her novels exceeding 2 billion copies by way of sales and having been translated into more than a hundred different languages.

Many of her works have been adapted to film, most notably “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974). Her short stories, plays, and novels have also been adapted to television, radio, and at least one video game (“And Then There Were None”, 2005). In addition, Christie boasts the Longest running play in the world: ‘The Mousetrap”, which she originally wrote as a birthday gift for Queen Mary. Christie received numerous honours during her Lifetime, including the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, (1955) and, the order of Dame Commander of the British Empire (1971).

She is credited with developing the “vintage style” of mystery, which became popular and, ultimately defined, the Golden Age of fiction in England, in the 1920s and ’30s, an age of which she is considered to have been Queen. In all, she wrote over 66 novels, numerous short stories and screenplays. She also wrote a series of romantic novels under the pen name Mary Westmarott, Indeed, she is still considered by many as one of the most popular mystery writers of all time.

This writer grew up reading those edge-of-the-seat mysteries that were solved by Christie’s fictional sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and hopes that you too will enjoy following their adventures!

 

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Who is Jane De Suza?

Now Lets start counting on our fingers. she is a management graduate from XLRI. She has been Creative Director with top advertising agencies. She has written for magazines across the world. She is currently co-building an app. And in the middle of all this, she Loves writing books! Meet Jane De Suza, the Singapore-based, multi-talented writer of the SuperZero series, Uncool, The Spy Who Lost Her Head and, the most recent, Flyaway Boy.

Stepping into writing

As an only child, growing up in the town of Jamshedpur, Jane made up stories constantly in her head and (believe it or not) in the margins of her textbooks! “That won me the Love of friends and the dismay of teachers. My parents had loads of books, and when I’d, read all mine, I started on theirs. And when I’d react theirs, 1 started writing my own,” she says, about her journey into the world of writing.

The Writer’s Routine

Jane admits that she isn’t the sort who can sit and churn out the daily 1000 words. ‘The churn shows,” she says, “it produces stoic, sludge writing. I’ve only ever started a book when the idea or character is unique enough to Leap out at me. And then the story writes itself. I start writing manically for hours at a stretch, oblivious to the pings from, either phone or pressure cooker.” She gets her first draft out in a fever, and Later rewrites it many more times.

Writing like Jane De Suza

Jane believes that ideas can strike at any moment. And that as a writer, you must always be prepared. So jot down these tips quickly!

Ideas are like sudden storms. Carry a pen and napkin (that you won’t blow your nose on Later and fling out). if a tune inspires you, hum it into your phone. If its an image of an upside down crow in a puddle, click the pic. Labels on bottles, lines from a book – write down anything you can build on Later.

* Start a chat with people – auto-drivers, hair dressers, grandparents, cobblers who are fixing your shoe. Walk around,. Eavesdrop. Put your phone away if you’re alone in a cafe or street, and look at people around. What’s the couple fighting about, you think? is it a boyfriend, brother, boyfriend’s brother? Aha,-story idea emerging, huh?

* Look at the world from someone else’s point of view. Argue against your own, beliefs. write from the perspective of a tree about to be cut down, or a dog with no home, or a man who cannot remember. * Write when completely alone. That’s why the best ideas hit in the loo. The only one I’d allow around, me while writing was Marco, my dog.

* I write best at night, when everyone’s asleep and, my imagination, has the world to romp around, in. I go back and edit in the mornings, in the clear Light of day.

* Talk to your characters, talk as your characters. Talk aloud. Make their conversations real.

* Write if you love to, not because you want to be rich, or famous. And don’t write a me-too book because someone else who wrote it, is now rich and famous. Find, your own voice (it may take months/years of rewrites). Write a story that no one else in the world, but you, can.

Jane De Stint’s books

For mid-school readers:

  • The SuperZero series: SuperZero, SuperZero and the Grumpy Ghosts , SuperZero and the Clone Crisis
  • Uncool
  • Flyaway Boy

For YA/adults:

  • The Spy Who Lost Her Head

Bet you didn’t know that

  • Jane cuts off heads and ears and, chins; relax, she takes terrible selfies!
  • Jane went through about 25 career options while growing up and still does!
  • Jane’s sense of humour often gets her into trouble!

 

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Who is Jeff Kinney?

‘Kin’ on adventures

Over a few weeks in August, Jeff Kinney, author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, visited bookstores across the U.S. to hand out signed copies of his new book, “Rowley Jeff erson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure,” in a safe, fun, socially distant way – via a custom-made 96-inch, trident!

First published in 2007, the “Wimpy Kid” books have become widely popular among young readers, who have grown up devouring the adventures of the middle-school weakling Greg Heffley. A profile writer, Kinney comes up with at least one book every year.

Rowley is the hero

Originally slated to release in April, the “Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure” was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It finally hit the stands on August 4. The new book is the second in a spin off series that follows Greg’s gullibly sweet friend Rowley. In the latest adventure, Rowley attempts to write a fantasy story. Greg acts as a critic, agent and publicist for his friend, and tries his best to not stir any trouble – which, of course, means that he ends up making things worse.

Rowley’s story features Roland and his best friend, Garg the Barbarian, as they leave the safety of their village and embark on a quest to save Roland’s mum from the White Warlock. On their way, they encounter all kinds of creatures from Sherlock Holmes and mermaids to wizards and a centaur (though it is part cow, not horse.) All the trappings of a must-read!

Doodling for a living?

Right from childhood Kinney loved to draw, but he wasn’t very glad at it. So he developed his own drawing style with stick figures and bug-eyed characters. Using his surroundings as an inspiration, he created comics strips about the life around him. One such comic strip was “Igdoof”, which Kinney ran in his college newspaper at the University of Maryland. However his work looked too juvenile and so he never received any offers from big newspapers. In 1998, he came up with the idea for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. Kinney worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher.

Did you know?

  • The Heffleys are loosely based on Kinney’s own family. Like Greg, the author too felt caught between his four siblings- elder brother Rodrick, his sister, and his younger brother, Patrick while growing up. He draws heavily on these childhood memories to write about Greg’s family.
  • Greg’s younger brother, Mannu became associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, after videos and graffiti made by activists went viral on social media. He was chosen as an icon because he is familiar to Gen Z and easy to draw.
  • The series started off online on Funbrain.com in 2004 and made its print debut in April of 2007. There are now more than 200 million copies of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books available in 77 editions of 65 languages.
  • Kinney wrote the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” originally for adults. It was meant to be a reflection on what it was like to be in middle school. When he fund an editor who liked the manuscript, he was told that what he had written was more like a children’s series than a book for adults.

Oh really!

  • Kinney opened an independent bookstore called An Unlikely Story, in his adopted hometown, Plainville, Massachusetts in 2015. Throughout the lockdown, the bookstore has held online chats with famous authors like Stephenie Meyer, John Grishan and David Nicholls.
  • The 15th book, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid; The Deep End”, is set to launch in mid-October, and sees the Heffley family going on an RV vacation.

 

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