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On Monday the 8th of December, the talented author, Bali Rai, visited our school to carry out a creative writing session for 15 lucky students ranging from year 10 to year 12. Some of you may not recognise the name Bali Rai- he is an author who was born, and grew up in, Leicester. He has written many novels and short stories, including “The Angel Collector”, “The crew”, “Rani and Sukh” and his very first novel, “(Un) arranged Marriage”. He talked to us for the duration of two lessons, divided by a break- during this time he illustrated his perspective on creative writing- everyone can do it. Everyone. To emphasise his point he trekked around the library, spontaneously choosing books and selecting random words from them. We then had to write a short story about a girl named Brazil intertwined with the wacky words: atomic bomb, pale pink gums, Roald Dahl, Elizabeth Montagu and that of a venomous lizard called a gila monster.
Another piece of welcomed advice which he relayed to us was, when you’re contemplating characters for your story, you should base them around people you know or have met. All of his characters are real in some way. He has even grounded a few on pupils that he has met whilst circulating schools.
Bali Rai was a genuine, funny and down-to-earth man. I spent the majority of my time reminding myself that I was in the company of the man who wrote my favourite books when I was younger. It was an interesting, amusing and unique morning- thank you very much Mrs. Chaudhry for organising this for the few who attended the creative writing session and the entirety of year 10, who also had the chance to meet this Liverpool supporting author.
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Vicki Tomlin, Bali Rai and Kayleigh Gray
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(To discover more about this eventful morning you can read a longer article in issue 7 of the student paper, the Radar)
Kayleigh Gray
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