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Once upon a time, in a land far away...

Celebrating Hans Christian Anderson's bicentennial

CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
WHO hasn't heard of Hans Christian Anderson? This famous name is associated with a host of well-loved fairy tales which are a staple for children all over the world. To celebrate Anderson's 200th birth anniversary this year, his native country Denmark is orchestrating special events throughout the world. The Royal Danish Embassy Dhaka is also planning a month long celebration starting from March 14. Shaittya Prakash has published Roopkothar Rajjye, a Bangla translation of 12 widely known fairy tales by Anderson to mark this event. The 12 stories The Angel, The Nightingale, The Brave Tin Soldier, The Tinder-box, The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf, The Flying Trunk, The Little Match-girl, The Emperor's New Suit, The Ugly Duckling, The Shepherdess and the Sweep, The Wild Swans and The Little Mermaid, have been translated by renowned literary personalities like Hayat Mamud, Buddhodeb Boshu, Mofidul Haque and Leela Majumdar.
Anderson, a prolific author of fairy tales, demonstrated that this genre is not necessarily limited to fairies. In these stories we meet witches and queens, giants and elves, princes, dragons, talking animals, ogres, princesses, and sometimes fairies. Awe-inspiring and magical things happen to characters in fairy tales. A frog may turn in to a prince, a princess may sleep for a hundred years. Objects too can be enchanted mirrors talk, pumpkins become carriages, and a lamp may be domicile to a genie. Fairy tales generally appeal to children but the inner-child inside each of us often indulges in reading these fables as they stimulate our imagination by taking us to a dominion we have never been to
a realm where everything is magical and where good always prevails over bad. Besides solely whooping up the reader's fantasy, this notion of 'Good always being triumphant' has always been at the core of most fairy tales beneath all the kings, queens, fairies and witches. This is why fairy tales play an imperative role in a child's upbringing as these tales teach children good values and provide hope by narrating how the downtrodden can attain impossible goals if they make great effort.
Anderson had penned several fairy tales that did and still continue to enchant billions of children around the world. How Anderson became legendary is no less than a fairy tale. Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805 in Odense,
Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as an actor and singer. When he was 14, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He
failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital, who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. He hated school - aged 17, he was in a class of 12-year-olds and was constantly mocked by them and by the teachers. In 1829 his first book, An account of a walking trip, was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. At first, he considered his adult books more important than his fantasies. In later life, however, he began to see that these apparently trivial stories could vividly portray constant features of human life and characters. Anderson then started writing mainly for children. He would often thinly disguise people he liked or disliked as characters in his stories - a woman who failed to return his love became the foolish prince in The Little Mermaid; his own physical lack of appeal and humiliation are reflected in The Ugly Duckling
With this rich background it will be no wonder if Roopkothar Rajjye is eagerly lapped up by the young and young at heart.