At 16, she is already an author of 2 books

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Kapurthala, November 27

She started penning short stories when she was barely 10. At 14, she authored a book ‘The best I can do is to write my heart out’ — a collection of 60 poems. Now 16, Harsimran Kaur, a student of Cambridge International School here, has two books to her credit; second one being a fiction book titled ‘I am perfectly imperfect’.

‘Lockdown’ poem...

Now that the libraries are locked, they can’t lock the freedom of my mind.

Now that the whole city is locked, they can’t lock my whole body possessing my soul.

Now, that the parks are locked; they can’t lock my lively spirit.

Now that everything appears locked, relationships are not yet locked…my home is not locked.

Ask her how she could do it at such a small age, she responds, “I have been an avid reader since my childhood. I have enjoyed reading books authored by Mark Twain and Raold Dahl. At 10, when I wrote my first short story, I got a lot of encouragement from my parents and teachers to write more. Ever since then, I have developed a unique relationship with writing.”

Harsimran says that her visit to the portal ‘Notionpress’ also nudged her interest. “I saw how young writers were encouraged to write more on the digital platform. In fact, my second book that got released in August 2019 had come out in the digital format. I also started using @harsimranwritesbooks on social media for reaching out to more readers,” says the budding writer, who also penned a poem named ‘Lockdown’ in Covid days.

Her father Jagtar Singh Mand, a government school teacher, and mother Davinder Kaur say, “Harsimran is writing most of the time and when she is not, you can find her buried beneath piles of books. Our daughter is indeed a gifted child. She is a very keen learner and expresses her love towards various subjects like literature and history. She loves to educate others about the importance of education and considers former First Lady of the US Michelle Obama as her idol.”

About her aim, Harsimran shares, “I want to move abroad after my class XII. I wish to study more about American or British English. I wish to continue my passion in writing but I am still not sure if I will pursue it as my profession.”

A student of humanities, she is also founder of “Pastlores” — an online history club where she connects with people and researchers across the globe and discusses about various elements of history. She has currently written two drafts which are yet to be published and is halfway through the draft of another book which she classifies as near eastern civilizations’ history. She is also researching about Mesopotamian civilization, under her unnamed new project and publishing of a research paper is on cards too.