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Discovering the Dark Continent
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The reading offered a peek into Pradeep Sinha's translation of the Bengali work, `Chander Pahar'
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The success of Harry Potter series, the reworking of The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, works of Enid Blyton and many others spell magic taking children on a journey of fantasy through a path full of adventure. Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay's widely read Bengali book Chander Pahar, written in the 1930s, belongs to this category of children's books. Bandyopadhyay, now often referred to as the author of Pather Panchali, has written a number of books especially for children. Only that most of his works were limited to the Bengali reading audience. That was until writer Pradeep Sinha felt the need to translate Chander Pahar into English so that it could reach a larger audience. Years after the translation, the book titled Moon Mountain is being published by Orient Longman. On Saturday evening, a gathering of children and adults (who had the child in them alive and kicking) got to listen to a reading of select chapters from the book. As a tribute to their father, Pradeep Sinha's daughter Mishka and son Nikhilesh presented the reading at Saptaparni. Shankar, a young lad, is the protagonist who moans his mundane job in a jute factory and dreams of venturing into (what he believes is) the undiscovered Africa. Landing a job of constructing a railway line in Mombasa, his adventure begins. His days in Africa are dotted liberally with adventure, as he goes about discovering the place and its wildlife - the man-eating lions and the deadly black mamba snake - through his job as a railway worker and then as a stationmaster. Bengali literature classifies books written for children into Shishu sahitya (for younger children) and Kishore sahitya (for young adults). Moon Mountain targets children above 12 who have a quest for adventure.
SANGEETHA DEVI. K
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