BTT #4 : Amar Chitra Katha No.2 : Cinderella(সিন্ডেরেলা)

 Amar Chitra Katha(ACK) was meant to be a series of graphical narration of the original Indian stories,ranging from true epics to mythology etc. But at the beginning the publisher IBH and the main person behind this series,Anant Pai, opt for some western fairy-tales for the first 10 issues in the period of 1967-69.But soon after they revised the series with true Indian stories - which was the original aim - and hence we got regular ACK issues from No.11 since 1969 and they reprinted each issue for numerous times and still they are doing the same under a new series with new numbering system!But all those initial 10 issues were cancelled back then on 1969 and never reprinted and hence those issues are very tough to come by in these days! Although story-wise no grown-up reader will miss those,still old-book lovers will go for any issue published under the banner they loved,like ACK, irrespective of the content.Here nostalgia factor matters the most...
 I have only 2 issues among those ten, No.2(Cinderella) & No.4(Aladin) and I'm not very eagerly looking for the rest 8 titles.You might be surprised to hear that the Bengali translation of  সিন্ডেরেলা was done by famous poet-cum-writer Premendra Mitra as mentioned in the inside-cover!

 According to the wiki and this nice ACK site, these 10 issues were never printed in English and hence Eng ACKs were started from No.11(Krishna) only(check the ACK-List with the 1st publication year).

 Here is the advertisement-page of the first 10 titles and the choice of languages...

DOWNLOAD সিন্ডেরেলা

BTT #3 : Baj-Pakhi Series by Swapan Kumar

Fellow blogger Mahasthabir's recent post reminds me of a old Bengali detective series that I almost forget - something that I shouldn't - the famous Baj-Pakhi Series by Swapan Kumar!!

 It was a super-hit series among the teenagers in the '60s,and my dad was one of those fans! :)) I have only 4 such small-shaped books,out of min. 15 titles, as mentioned in the back covers.But I don't have much idea about this series,so anybody with better info please come forward and share with us!
I have only 2 memories associated with this series.One,I was lured toward this series majorly due to the fantastic cover-arts and the second,from where I bought these : all were purchased from a small shop of hardware materials in the early '90s! Yes, it was quite an odd place to buy a books' series specially an almost out-of-print one....and that seller had no others books apart from those titles!! :o)

 The stories were good enough for the pre & early teens,supported by fantastic cover-arts!As far as the list published in the back-cover of each issue,there were 15 titles available then but I am not sure if that's all!

You can see that list here :

I have issues #1, 10, 11 & 12.Now I will request other fans who have these titles, please scan the other covers so that we can have a cover-gallery of this series!

BTT #2 : Nonte ar Fonter Nanan Kirti (প্রথম পর্ব/Vol.1) by Narayan Debnath

 If late Satyajit Roy holds a special place in the Bengali teen-literature domain,then Narayan Debnath is definitely responsible for the revolution of the original Bengali comic-strips(fun-series) era. Among his best creations, we can take names like Batul the Great, Handa-Bhonda & of course,Nonte-Fonte! While introduction-wise Nonte-Fonte series was 3rd in the list,it was the most popular and widely circulated compare to it's two predecessors.
 After the series was well-received among the readers of Kishor Bharati,the publisher Patra Bharati started to publish compilations of those humor-strips in a book-form,under the title 'Nonte-Fonter Nanan Kirti' from the '80s onwards..
Today I'm posting the very first volume of this series..

Between,while the series' name doesn't include him,but without his presence I wouldn't became this much fan of Nonte-Fonte and he IS one and only keltuda ;o)). Also not to forget that glutton superintendent!

Without them, the fun becomes much less! Ain't my friends??

DOWNLOAD Nonte ar Fonter Nanan Kirti (প্রথম পর্ব)