This collection of short stories for children, translated from Assamese into English, spans more than a century of Assamese children's short stories, starting with those written by some of the stalwarts of Assamese literature, like Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Jyotiprasad Agarwala, Nabakanta Barua, etc. and concluding with those written by the present generation of shor story writers.
This eclectic collection, containing forty-seven short stories, will delight children across all ages. The stories depict, through their characters, various human emotions like compassion, empathy, sensitivity, adventurous spirit, and some human foibles like showing off, jealousy, temporarily losing one's moral compass, the judgmental attitude of some adults towards children, etc. The stories, while being light-hearted and amusing, will make the readers ponder on human nature, the environment, moral values, good and evil, etc.
The stories reflect the character and mental universe of children living in rural as well as urban areas. These stories will, hopefully, open up the path for the study of Assamese children's short stories.
SANTANOO TAMULY is the founder editor of Mouchaq, an Assamese children's monthly and Natun Awistar, an Assamese popular science monthly for children. He is the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar in 2012 as recognition of his contribution towards children's literature in Assamese. He received a national award in 2010 for outstanding efforts in science & technology popularization among children, conferred by the Department of Science & Technology, National Council for Science & Technology. He has thirty-six children and popular science books to his credit. Two of his books have been translated into English, Hindi and other Indian languages. Sahitya Akademi has published Asomiya Sishu-Sahityar Nirbacita Chutigalpa (2016), Asomiya Kalpabijnan Galpa Sankalan (2017) and Nirbacita Asomiya Sishu-Nat Sankalan (2018) compiled and edited by him.
In ancient times, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, stories from the Puranas, Panchatantra, Hitopodesh and other such stories were popular in the oral form. When the oral stories were converted into the written form, several experiments were carried out. With the development of modern printing process in the nineteenth century, writers started having more autonomy in giving final shape to their manuscripts. The Industrial Revolution and the Second World War influenced the sensibilities of the writers and there was a growth in humanist and rationalist thought in literature. Literature and publishing grew rapidly due to the commercial needs of the printing presses. There was revolutionary growth in printing of magazines and books in various Indian languages on education, religion and literary criticism. The political and socio-economic differences in our country contributed towards changing public awareness and values in literature.
Short stories are a montage of life. They are the contribution of Western literature. Short stories developed in the West in the beginning of the nineteenth century. In India, Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918) had written a short story called 'Losmoniya' in Oriya, in 1868. This story is considered to be the first short story in an Indian language. Some others consider his short story titled 'Revati', written in 1898, to be the first short story in Oriya. 'Revati' is the story of a woman aspiring for education and about her growing relationship with a teacher, leading to social discrimination. The story, at that time, created awareness about women's education.
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