The lockdown has awakened a creative urge in many. Seventeen-year-old Shivam Sahni too had made the most of this time

A 12th-grade student at Modern School, Vasant Vihar, Sahni’s book ‘The Boy and The Bard’ has been published recently. His encounter with William Shakespeare’s work led to a writing frenzy

“During the lockdown stuck at home, I was scanning through the bookshelf, trying to find something new to read. I always wanted to read Shakespeare, but because of school, I never found the time as it requires some amount of dedication. I found The Tempest which has been lying in my bookshelf for two or three years and started going through it. The play just opened up a world of literary wealth for me,” says Sahni. 

He then went on to read Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caeser and it just continued from there. 

In the process of completing 10 plays, there was so much that he had thought of, so much that he wanted to talk about, that he started penning them down in blogs. 

The book is an analysis of not only the literal merits of the bard but also the influence and impact of his works on society, as well as the different incantations of the human mind and interpersonal relationships. From addressing the status of Jews in Venice, to the differences between fate and destiny, to the vainglorious villainy of Iago, it delves at times deep into the human psyche.

While he only had an extract of Julius Caesar in his 10th grade, he took up reading Shakespeare’s plays out of his own interest. Incredibly zealous about literature, both classic and contemporary, and the arts as a whole, Sahni is looking to pursue English for his further studies. 

His first publication was a fun process for him. “I am an avid reader and to be on the other side of it, to be writing and publishing a book is a novel experience. My friends weren’t aware of it, I just dropped a surprise on them,” he says. 

Back to his schoolwork, and with his board exams approaching, Sahni is quite caught up, however, he looks forward to writing more in the future. 

‘The Boy and The Bard’ is listed on Amazon and will be available for purchase from the 19th