Through the eyes of the young
Choru Hoque appreciates a teen's teen novel
This year a very young novelist has come forth with a novel at the Ekushey Book Fair. The title of the book is Bochhorta Chhilo JSC-r, which could be translated into English as 'The Year was of JSC'. The young author is Brotee Das Datta, who is only fourteen years old, a class nine student of Viqarunnisa Noon School. It is a beautiful experience to go through the enchanting story of the 30-page book Bochhorta Chhilo JSC-r. We can understand the aspirations and the told and untold desires of teenagers of these times as they reflected in the novel, brought out by a very new publishing house. The characters of this novel are Nishat, Upama, Arka, Rihab, Avro and so on. They are students of class eight and preparing themselves for the coming JSC examination, the Junior School Certificate Examination that was held for the first time in 2010. The afore-mentioned characters are going to attend the first public exam in their lives. But during the year many things have occurred. Among them a good number of things have happened and many are beyond expectation. During this one year the main characters like Upama and Nishat have faced frustration, despair repeatedly. But at last with a lot of hard work and ambition, they all have been able to achieve excellent results in their JSC exam. In this novel, our young writer has talked about some social problems like eve-teasing, et cetera, and has tried to come up with some solutions that can help us overcome these contemporary social problems. She has also talked about the thinking and lifestyle of teenagers of the present era. To express the true picture of the original lifestyle of the teenagers, Brotee Das Datta has also written about some foreign movie stars and sports persons who are closely linked to the thoughts and lifestyle of modern teenagers. More than that nowadays, the lives of most teenages are technology related. From an outward view, that might seem less befitting for a Bangla teenage novel, but we must not forget that the school-going author has presented a picture of a kind of city life where people of her age do not get the school field for physical exercises, not even the school compound, let alone in the localities they live in. It is an age when teenagers have to spend their most leisure days before the television box. This is a very enjoyable story offered by a promising teenage writer. It is the writer's first book. Like a movie it expresses all the inner storms and feelings of our new generation. The characters here give expression to their dreams and sufferings, joys and expectations, loneliness and inner sobbing, misunderstanding, frustration and finally their great achievements in a greater perspective. We must hail the arrival of a new house in the publication arena of Bangladesh, and for its decision to invest in a work by a teenage writer. Much appreciation also goes to Biswajit Datta for his cover design which may suit the taste of those in their early teens, free of childhood days but yet to reach adulthood.
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