Lila Majumdar was one of the greatest writers for children. She was born on
26th February in
1908. She was the daughter of Promodranjan Roy, the younger brother of great Bengali litterateur, Upendrakishore Roy Chowdhury. She had her early school at Shillong and later he was shifted to Calcutta where she completed her education. Majumdar had an impeccabe record in academics. She did her M.A in English with credit becoming first class first in
1928. She began her career as a teacher at a school in Darjeeling. Within a year she moved to Shantiniketan in
1931 and taught there. Majumdar was passionate abut writing for children. She was in her teens when her first story was published in
1922 in 'Sandesh' then edited by Sukumar Roy, her elder cousin. In the late
50s she was associated with all India Radio 'Galpo Dadur Aasar' and 'Thakumar Chithi'. Lila Majumdar wrote essays, science fictions, ghost stories, fantasis, translated literary works from foreign languages, biographies, plays and of course mamoires. But writing for children was her forte. "I want to give my entire childhood to children. It was so beaten up by my father several times. I was locked in a bathroom once. I used my father's soap to make bubbles .......can these be forgotten?" most famous are her memories - 'Aar Konokhane' and ' Pakdandi' and her books for children like 'Padipishir Barmibaksho', 'Gupir Gupta Khata', 'Halde Pakhir Palak', 'Kheror Khata' etc. Majumdar received several awards including the Rabindra Puraskar, Sangeet Natak Academy Award, Ananda Puraskar and Sishu Sahitya Puraskar. The flow of words that began since her teens to enthural readers across ages stopped on April
5,
2007 just
11 months before she was to turn
100.
0 Comments