Children love to read fantasy stories even today, believes Arundhati Bhattacharya, known best by her nomme de plume Nura Hatid. This January, she launched her book The Adventures of Norbu - The Jade Sword. She says, "Though I first published it in 2015, I relaunched the book on a bigger platform as I had not done so the first time around. As it was my first book, I did not know how people or children would take it. We only gave these books to schools, so that children could read it and, to my surprise, I received positive responses. This led to relaunching it on a bigger platform years later." You will be surprised to know that Arundhati comes from a Science background but it was her love for the English language that led her to become an author. She says, "I did my graduation in Physics from the University of Calcutta and followed it up by a post graduation in Management from Jadavpur University. After a few years, I did my graduation in English from the University of London, followed by a post graduation as well. It was the skills of creative writing that I learnt during my graduation in English that helped me write this book.
When we ask her how different her book is from other fantasy books, she says, "As children, we grew up listening to folktales told by our parents and grandparents and I read some of them from Russia and China also. That's why I decided to write a book that would weave the folktales of India, Russia and China. Through this book, I am trying to explain the current situation of violence and unrest in the world. If a person is bad, then it might not be because of his community but due to bad upbringing. I convey situations like these through the medium of fantasy." The book is the story of Norbu and his adventures with his school friends. They are looking forward to a fun-filled summer holiday in Mayal. However, the secret that they discover will trigger a wild adventure through magical and dangerous lands. "It's an adventure they must survive to save the world from evil. My book tells children to stand up and speak up when they don't like something. Children can relate to it because kids aged from 5 to 15 years old in this book partake in all sorts of adventure that only adults do and it's not a joke," concludes Arundhati.