‘I walk ahead, seeing nothing, but nothingness… dense fog’ is the sum and substance of a haiku — a Japanese form of poetry which expresses maximum emotion in minimum words — which bagged Vadodara-based Taha Memon (17) the Katha Grand Prize for creative writing in the senior category (class VIII-XII) of the National Bal Katha Utsav 2014, staged in New Delhi last December. Taha’s haiku bested 28 creative writing entries submitted for the Katha Grand Prize.

Introduced to the nuances of creative writing by his English language teachers in his early years, this class XII student of the city’s CBSE-affiliated Anand Vidya Vihar School cleared the preliminary round of the competition last October, by impressing a highly qualified jury panel with his short story The Madman.

The elder of two children of Zuber, a Vadodara-based industrialist, and mother Firdaus, a homemaker — both compulsive readers — Taha acknowledges his parents and family as formative influences. Surrounded by the works of poets William Wordsworth, John Keats, Pablo Neruda, and Lord Byron among others since his early years, Taha began penning verses when he was eight. His grandfather, a voracious reader himself, was instrumental in helping Taha publish his first collection of 20 poems when he was in class IX.

According to Taha, whose 12 awards in story-writing, debates, elocution, Model United Nations, quiz and International English Olympiad crowd the home mantelpiece, the latest award is of special significance because he is now in his final year of school.

“Though long form writing is my forte, my entry of a haiku was to prove a point to myself and my critics who accused me of verbosity,” says this versatile English language aficionado.

Also a keen student of new ICT (information communication technology), Taha is intent upon exploring the possibility of combining an engineering degree programme with journalism after leaving school. With the emergence of new genre liberal arts and sciences institutions offering a wide range of electives and combinations, Taha’s ambition is set to be realised. 
Way to go, Bro!

Suverchala Kashyap (Vadodara)