Arjun Krishna Lal doesn’t come across as just another 19-year-old whiling away his time. He likes to write and has followed that passion by writing two books, already: Wicked Games, his second book, and Anointed by the Moon, his first.
Wicked Games is about a group of 17-year-olds who negotiate their way through a tumultuous period of difficult friendships, school and family life. Even though Amit Pillai is the protagonist, all the characters have been crafted well, making them easily relatable. The book is essentially about how teenagers grapple with owning a sense of self.
The book begins with Amit moving with his family from small-town America to Kerala, and follows him through his life at Ananthapuri International School, where he moves from trying to fit in to confronting his inner demons.
“I started writing in tenth grade. I began work on Wicked Games last April. The book is about growing up and figuring out, over time, how things are,” says the articulate Arjun, who is pursuing a BA in journalism.
The book is close to Arjun’s own experiences. Like Amit, Arjun spent his growing up years in the small Midwestern US town of Cedar Rapids. He moved to Thiruvananthapuram in 2010, and studied at an International School. Even though some of Arjun’s experience of the times he spent at International School has seeped into the book, he says that it is primarily a fictional story.
Arjun has depicted Ananthapuri, where the book is set, in a charming way. “There’s this laconic idea about small towns in South India. When I moved to Thiruvananthapuram, I saw that was not the case.”
Even though the book is about teenagers, Arjun says that people from all age groups can benefit from it. “People from other generations have misconceptions about my generation. But there are reasons for people being the way they are. Every character in the book is flawed. There is no arbitrary right or wrong. There should be no judgement,” says Arjun, who likes gaming and describes himself as “an occasional student.”
Arjun’s writing style and command over the language are quite impressive. “Writing is a visual process for me. I see something and describe it. The structure and world in this book are coherent because this is what I experienced. I wrote the first two chapters on a bus travelling from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram.”
Wicked Games is an Inked publication, an imprint of Penguin, priced at Rs. 250.
