In digital age, teen turns to writing novels and ballads
RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: Watching reels, chatting with friends, complete immersion in social media, and leaving homework unfinished are common among teenagers these days. 13-year-old Challa Mahirama is different.
After school, she reaches home and completes her homework to get involved with writing books. She not only published two books but also penned many lyrics, all in pursuit of her hobbies and curiosity in nature.
Born in Cleveland in the US in 2011 and lived there till the age of 6, she had to move to India as her father, Rohan Krishna Challa, shifted to Hyderabad for a better career. Her parents admitted her to a well-known school in Hyderabad, where she is now in class 9.
Fly Fly in the Sky is her first song. Ruby Bluestream and the Bond of Fire is her fiction-based novel published recently. Gandham Pavana from London provided the attractive cover page for the novel. Her second book is Musings of Mahirama. She wrote on girls, global warming, bonds that push, wisdom, beauty, poems on various topics and ballads.
She is so good at the English language that she doesn't need to search for words while writing a poem, song, or novel. Her writing slowly drifted onto themes of conservation, love, and life lessons, drawing on her own experiences. A left-handed writer, she is a calligraphy enthusiast.
'My influencers are my parents, Roshan Krishna and Saisudha, my grandfather, Dr CVS Sastry, and sports psychologist Sunkara Nagendra Kishore. They used to guide me in every aspect,' she said with emotion.
It is interesting to know that Mahirama's great-grandfather, RM Challa, was a columnist for the Indian Express southern editions and contributed features for more than a decade till the 90s. 'After school, I finish my homework and spend a couple of hours writing. The first compilation of my musings was published by my grandfather. I recently published my novel,' Mahirama told TNIE.
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