Stories by modern Hindi and Urdu literary
legend, Munshi Premchand are now available in comic format published by
Amar Chitra Katha. The comic books in Hindi detailing two stories by
the late literary phenomenon, is part of the publisher's contemporary
classics section, which began in 2012 with stories by author Ruskin
Bond. "We are launching the comics at the World Book Fair and it is our
tribute to Premchand. The idea is to make his stories familiar with
children," Reena Puri, Editor, Amar Chitra Katha told PTI. The stories
"Buddhi Kaki" (The old Aunt) and "Do Bail" (Two Oxen) have been scripted
and illustrated by Pratima Singh and Surendra Murthy. The English
version of the comics translated by Nandini Nair is also set for launch
within a few weeks, says Reena. The books are priced at Rs 50 each.
"Buddhi Kaki" first published in 1921 is the story of an old childless
widow who craves for love after she bequeaths her entire property to her
nephew and his family who start mistreating her. Also "Do Bail" the
story about two ox revolves around compassion. "For our contemporary
classic series we have identified many authors in the last 100 years.
Our list includes Ruskin Bond whose story 'Blue Umbrella' was well loved
by readers and got a great response. "Stories of Premchand are now in
the public domain but for others we need to get permission from the
authors' families etc," says Reena. Detailing the efforts put into
converting Premchand's stories into comic format Reena says, "Of course
it was very challenging." "It is not easy to convert Premchand's
stories into comics because there is so much description in the way he
writes and obviously we can't convert each line into text. We had to
rely on pictures to denote the expressions," says Reena. Born in Lamhai
near Varanasi, Premchand wrote nearly 300 stories and novels. Among his
best known novels are "Godan", "Sevasadan", "Rangmanch", "Gaban" and
"Nirmala". ACK has been bringing out stories written by Kalidasa,
Shudraka and Harsha amongst others under its "Indian Classics" section.
Legendary playback singer Manna Dey, who mesmerised generations of listeners with his inimitable voice for over five decades with hits like 'ay mere pyara watan', 'laaga chunri me daag' and 'poocho na kaise', died at a hospital here today at the age of 94 after prolonged illness. Dey, who was in and out of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in the last five months for respiratory and renal problems, died of cardiac arrest with his daughter Shumita Deb and son-in-law Jnanranjan Deb by his bedside when the end came at 3.50 AM. The condition of Dey, who had made Bangalore his home for the last many years, deteriorated since yesterday afternoon, hospital spokesman Vasuki said. With the demise of Dey, the void has become complete in the famous quartet of singers Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore Kumar, who dominated the Hindi music industry from 1950s to 1970s. The mortal remains of Dey, whose unique voice lent a rare dimension to his persona, were cremate...

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