10-year-old from Jaipur is the world's youngest practising playwright

Ten-year-old Krshaana Rawat was recognised as the world’s youngest practising playwright by Guinness World Records on April 21. A student of Class 6 at Jayshree Periwal International School, Krshaana does not find it a big deal. “People I don’t know come and congratulate me. It’s weird,” she said.

The chirpy young playwright loves reading fantasy fiction, with the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series being her favourites. “She loves her books, and goes through them really fast. Every year on her birthday, she asks all her friends to gift her Crosswords’ vouchers. She already has over 500 books and has read all of them,” Krshaana’s mother, Shreya Rawat, said. 

Krshaana bagged the world record for her play, The Lost Key, which is also a fantasy fiction. The play is about a little girl, Tinky, who is transported into a different world. She has to save a kidnapped fairy and look for the lost key. It took Krshaana six months to conceptualise the play which has a running time of 80 minutes. The play meticulously details every character’s back-story. Krshaana, with the help of her friends, also made a map of the mystical land. 

The play was performed at Birla Auditorium by Krshaana and her friends on April 21, after which she was awarded with the world record. 

Krshaana said that she wrote her first play when she was in Class 3. “That was also a fantasy fiction and the main character in it was a little girl called Tinkle. I like to use variations of this name,” she said. 

Shreya said that Krshaana’s love for writing came from her love of reading. “I used to read when I was pregnant with her. Then, after she was born, I used to read a story to her every night. By the time she was two years old, she could recite some of the stories in her books word to word. She has just delved more into books since,” Shreya said. 

With grandparents, parents, two dogs and her numerous books, Krshaana remains busy all the time when she is home. “I don’t like to watch films. I watch some cartoons, like Tom and Jerry, but not films,” she said. 

When asked about whether fantasy worlds are real or not, Krshaana said, “I don’t know about others, but the one I wrote is definitely real.” She is currently working on a sequel to The Lost Key. 

“Since she loves Harry Potter, we had promised to take her to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter if she got good grades, and she did,” Shreya said. The young bibliophile is now eagerly waiting for her summer vacations, when she will finally get to be in one of her favourite fantasy worlds.