Another reason that compelled her to write the 50-pager, was adventure. While thinking of short adventure stories for children, rather obvious narratives of kids falling on the hillside during a hike or kids going snorkelling and meeting a shark, cropped up. "Then I said to myself, 'Oh silly thing, it's all around you!' I realised that the pandemic was the biggest adventure that's ever happened to the Earth. I wanted to get the book out during the lockdown because only then would it have an impact," she shares.

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What's interesting about Whitaker's writing is the fact that it is didactic without being too in-your-face. It takes a while to note that nail polish being the preferred drink for all viruses because it is available in plenty is actually a comment on consumerism and as a result, landfills. "It's not the sort of book where children are like, 'Oh! I am being educated.' And it is this approach that requires a lot of fine-tuning while writing," she shares.

Zai Whitaker. Pic/Gnaneswar Ch

Zyrus the Virus did entail a lot of research, and Whitaker attended many Zoom webinars including one by the National Centre for Biological Sciences. She also reckons that she will possibly take to writing about the pandemic again. "For long, we've been talking about the 11th hour. But this is the 11th hour. I want this to be a good story that stays in the minds of children and parents. In every possible way, we need to look at what we do and think as people."

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