The Drought Within

Ganesh Aithal is a school-going boy with myriad thoughts and was studying in tenth standard when this story was completed. He is a student of Saint Augustine English School in Parbhani, Maharashtra, India, which plays an important role in bringing up his character as a reader and writer in English. This young author was born in Parbhani and, from his young days, has always been a voracious reader. Ganesh, from a very young age, was accustomed to the process of ?listening? to stories from his mother, who untiringly narrated to him stories ranging from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. She read out to him historical happenings ranging from the valor of Great Shivaji to Swami Vivekananda, the wit of Mullah Naseeruddin, and the wisdom of Tenali Raman. As he grew up, he got illustrated comics as gifts, which set up his imagination. In his preteen years, narratives of Ruskin Bond became his favorite, and he loved to be with Bond?s characters, both human and those from the jungle. He loved super characters and appreciated the philosophy of using superpowers for the betterment of humanity and eradication of evil. He discovered R. K. Narayan?s eye of keeping all the events happening around Malgudi in many of his novels. Ganesh created a microcosm of himself, which can be seen in his stories. Stumbling on Sudha Murthy and Anushka Sharma?s books, he imagined as if some distant aunt of his was narrating to him her newly found stories. His maternal grandfather, retired Prof. Madhava Bhat, who himself is an ardent reader, recommended and introduced Mark Twain?s characters in his life. He read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn?s adventures with a twinkle in his eyes and narrated the funny lines and paragraphs to his mother, who listened with interest. His father Dr. Shiva Aithal and his friend and mentor Dr. Renukadas Deshpande, who are voracious readers and a great collector of books, introduced to him the writings and the fine characters of Arthur Conan Doyle. Mr. Nilesh Bandale?a good friend, a reputed translator, and a handwriting expert?gifted him his first ink pen and chiseled his brain, carving a niche and interest for cursive handwriting. This novel in its original state is a two-hundred-page book handwritten in cursive writing with an ink pen. Ganesh loves reading as much as he loves writing, and with constant encouragement from his possessed books and his countless thoughts, he correlates the present happenings around him. He loves to bring his feelings into life through characters and weaves them into ongoing situations. He has a knack of concluding his stories ethically, morally, and utopically without much preaching. Mostly, Ganesh writes light humour, and one day his father casually asked, ?Can you write on a serious topic?? He instantly said, ?Why not?? And he came up with a serious topic of drought, which reflects the present conditions and remedy of a farmer?s suicide in the region where he was born. Though all the characters and situations in this novel are fictitious and imaginary, they are nevertheless a collage of real life incidents experienced by him during reading and listening to real life incidents over the span of his growing years. His writings constantly prove to be an inspiration to the school-going students and their parents alike in this remote town of Parbhani