JORHAT, March 6 � With an aim to satisfy the curiosity of the children the National Book Trust of India (NBT), is preparing to publish 25Assamese storybooks with spectacular illustrations and which will be released simultaneously in English and Hindi. This was disclosed by Dr Santanu Tamuli, the resource person of the workshop organised by NBT in August 2008 to prepare the manuscripts for these books.
�Five books have been completed till now and these are expected to come out in the market soon�, Tamuli told this correspondent.
Children�s writer and editor of Mouchak, a children�s magazine in Assamese, Tamuli further added that these are expected to be released at the book fair at North Lakhimpur to be held in the second week of this month. The books are meant for children between six to eight years of age, he informed.
Dr Tamuli further informed that a total number of 50 manuscripts had been prepared by 20 children�s writers including two from Arunachal Pradesh at a workshop held at New Park Hotel here from August 8 to 10,2008 out of which 25 had been selected. Among the 25, five volumes, Hoha aru Kasa and Mekuri aru Nigani by Kiran Tamuli, Pualitue Uuribole Hikile by Dilip Kumar Boruah, Minar Dhol by Shaktirupa Parashar and Jen Kukur Ten Tangun by Kenglang Kengcham have already got printed and would soon hit the stalls. Santanu Tamuli and Gagan Chandra Adhikari, the noted writer of children literature were the resource persons in that workshop.
�Though the manuscripts were ready a long time ago, it took a long time to add pictorial illustrations in support of the scripts�, said Tamuli.
In a similar venture earlier, NBT had published 8 such books which were translated into Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tamil and Telegu. One of the books, Dhekiapatiar Nach written by Dilip Kumar Boruah was translated into Hindi and accepted as a text book in the schools of Maharashtra.
Tamuli was of the opinion that there prevailed a scarcity of reading material for the age group between 6 to 8 years and the volumes to be published by NBT would surely fill up the gap to a great extent. The popularity of the above translations of Assamese stories into several languages has proved that the child literature of Assamese language has a universal appeal, he stated.
