When I was a wee lassie of about 9-10 years old, I had stumbled
across a part of a story in Shuktara (those who remember this historic kids'
magazine which has seen stories from many a famous people in its time). The
story was a part of a novel, sort of a weekly series I think it was, about a
Viking prince Francis who goes off on various adventures. I was instantly
attracted.
As my inquisitiveness led me to explore more about this hunky hero
(based completely on the brief descriptions in the story and my rather vivid
imaginations), I found out that it was penned by Anil Bhowmick, a history
teacher who had first started these stories for his students. I dug deeper and
soon lost myself in the medieval world which consisted of sword plays, quick
and sudden deaths, passionate romance, sacrifice for friendship. Man! If only
the author was in US, the books would have already been made into a movie
franchise. And would have been as popular as, if not more, the Pirates of the
Caribbean.
The stories concentrate on Francis and his group of very good
friends whose one passion in life in to seek the thrill of venturing into the
unknown (remember it was the Middle Ages, so they didn't yet know that the
earth was round) and above all Treasure Hunting. And that's what makes these
stores so compelling. The combination of teen drama and treasure hunt never
goes amiss! And I was completely smitten by it.
So, it pained me when I learnt that not many kids are aware of
this gorgeous piece of literature. And so I thought, what can I do from
my side to make it a little more popular? And the answer came to me. I can
finally maybe use my long dormant blog and start translating the novels in
small portions. And this way I can also get an idea of how good am I in
writing.
So friends, from next week starts my maiden effort of translating a bangla book
with Scandinavian flavour to English. Please read through and encourage or ask
me to shut up in the comments section below.
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