Quick Facts
Biography
Khyrunnisa A. is a prize-winning Indian author of children’s fiction, speaker, academic and a columnist, who created the iconic popular comic book character 'Butterfingers. The character first appeared in a leading children’s magazine called Tinkle. Thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, aka Butterfingers, now features in the eponymous Butterfingers series of novels and short story collections published by Puffin, the children’s imprint of Penguin Books India, currently Penguin Random House India.
Khyrunnisa’s first three children’s novels Howzzat Butterfingers! (2010), Goal, Butterfingers! (2012) and Clean Bowled, Butterfingers! (2015), were followed by two collections of short stories, The Misadventures of Butterfingers (2016) and Run, It's Butterfingers Again! (2017). All the Butterfingers books were launched by Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament.
A book of her prize-winning stories, Lost in Ooty and Other Adventure Stories, was brought out by Unisun Publications in 2010. Some of her stories for children and for adults have appeared in anthologies published by Puffin, Children’s Book Trust and Unisun Publications. She writes stories regularly for the children’s magazine, Dimdima, a Bhavan’s publication.
‘Butterfingers,’ Khyrunnisa’s entry for the Annual All India Tinkle Short story competition for adult writers of children’s fiction in 1996, won her the second prize. She went on to win the first prize at the competition for the next seven consecutive years – from 1997-2003. In 2007, she won the prestigious Unisun Children’s Fiction Award. She also has five Children’s Book Trust prizes to her credit.
Personal life
Khyrunnisa’s parents, A.R. Bijli and Ayesha Bijli, settled down in Trivandrum as her father, a post master, believed that Trivandrum was the best place to provide his eight children, seven of whom were girls, with good education.
She continues to reside in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with her husband P. Vijaya Kumar, a former professor of English and the grandson of Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, one of the leading poets of Kerala.They have one son, Amar Vijaykumar, an engineer, who is married to Arpitha Sreedhara. The two are currently working in the US.
Education
Khyrunnisa did her schooling in Holy Angel's Convent Trivandrum, and her undergraduate studies in All Saints College and postgraduate as well as M Phil. in University College, Trivandrum. She was awarded the 3rd rank for BA English Literature in Kerala University.
Career
Khyrunnisa worked as Associate Professor of English at All Saints’ College, Thiruvananthapuram. She was appointed Management Trainee in Punjab National Bank and worked there for two years before resigning to take up a teaching job at All Saints’ College.
She was a columnist for The New Indian Express, writing on classics and well known works of fiction. She has freelanced for publications like Outlook Traveller, Manorama Year Book and Kerala Calling, among others. She has an ongoing fortnightly column, Inside View, in The Hindu MetroPlus.
Butterfingers
The Butterfinger series revolves around the hilarious escapades of thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, a class VIII student of the fictitious Green Park Higher Secondary School. Amar’s slip-grip methods and his clumsy antics earned him the nickname Butterfingers.
Butterfingers, named after Khyrunnisa’s son, Amar, first appeared in 2006 in Tinkle, a popular fortnightly Indian children's magazine, as a regular comic-strip character. The illustrations were by Abhijeet Kini, the Mumbai based illustrator and graphic artist.
The popular Butterfingers series, published by Puffin, began with the novel, Howzzat Butterfingers! , In 2010. This humorous cricket-based book was followed in 2012 by Goal, Butterfingers!, a rollicking football-based adventure novel which also includes a socially relevant environmental theme. The third in the series, ‘Clean Bowled, Butterfingers! was published in 2015 and is another cricket-based novel with a hilariously farcical plot in which Amar and his friends invent a variation of cricket called ‘Crack It’ when the school’s cricket gear gets stolen. This game, played without cricket bats and balls, has its own absurd rules and generates immense fun.
The Misadventures of Butterfingers, the fourth book in the series, came out in 2016 and is a collection of short stories. It was followed by another collection of delightful short stories, Run! It’s Butterfingers Again! in 2017.
The books have received praise from different quarters. The late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, former Indian cricket captain and legend, wrote of Howzzat Butterfingers!: ‘What great fun! It brings back memories of my prep school days.’ The ace cricketer V.V.S. Laxman described Clean Bowled Butterfingers as an ‘exuberant mix of school, cricket and fun.’ Shashi Tharoor, writer, MP and diplomat, complimented Khyrunnisa ‘not just for creating Butterfingers, but for enriching Indian writing with world-class children’s literature.’