Arup Kumar Dutta has also achieved international repute with his books of fiction for young people and ranks among the biggest names in this field. First dubbed by The Illustrated Weekly of India as ‘India’s Own Blyton’, the sobriquet has stuck to his name despite the many rejoinders issued by him. A majority of his novels have individual backgrounds and individual depiction of characters and situations, and are not set within any tried and tested formula. He has been credited with ‘creating what is veritably a new genre of gripping fiction set in India’ for teenagers. His prolific output of adventure novels and other writings for young people include:-
Foreign Translation
The Kaziranga Trail
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1978
In 1978, Dutta’s first work of YA fiction, a conservation oriented novel titled The Kaziranga Trail, won the first prize in an international competition conducted by Children’s Book Trust, New Delhi. Acclaimed as one of the classics in Indian children’s literature, at par with Anita Desai’s The Village by the Sea and Ruskin Bond’s Adventures of Rusty, this book not only proved to be an all time bestseller, but also won for the author the prestigious Shankar’s Award in 1979, conferred to mark the International Year of the Child. It was made into a feature film, titled Rhino, by the Children’s Film Society of India.
The Kaziranga Trail has been translated into a number of Indian and foreign languages, including German, Japanese, Russian, Hungarian and Czech. In Japan it has been converted to Braille and also made compulsory summer reading for school students. It is amongst one of the three Indian entries in the New York Publication 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up edited by Julia Eccleshare. The Kaziranga Trail is featured in the “Literature of the World Series” brought out by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on 2nd October, 2001, along with books of Satyajit Ray and Ruskin Bond.
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1978
In 1978, Dutta’s first work of YA fiction, a conservation oriented novel titled The Kaziranga Trail, won the first prize in an international competition conducted by Children’s Book Trust, New Delhi. Acclaimed as one of the classics in Indian children’s literature, at par with Anita Desai’s The Village by the Sea and Ruskin Bond’s Adventures of Rusty, this book not only proved to be an all time bestseller, but also won for the author the prestigious Shankar’s Award in 1979, conferred to mark the International Year of the Child. It was made into a feature film, titled Rhino, by the Children’s Film Society of India.
The Kaziranga Trail has been translated into a number of Indian and foreign languages, including German, Japanese, Russian, Hungarian and Czech. In Japan it has been converted to Braille and also made compulsory summer reading for school students. It is amongst one of the three Indian entries in the New York Publication 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up edited by Julia Eccleshare. The Kaziranga Trail is featured in the “Literature of the World Series” brought out by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on 2nd October, 2001, along with books of Satyajit Ray and Ruskin Bond.
Critical Reception
"The Kaziranga Trail is an adventure story set in the Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, India, and with its strong focus on environmental issues, it was ahead of its time when it was first published.
‘The story centers on three village boys, Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti, and their young elephant, Makhoni. During the school vacation the boys find a dead rhinoceros in the wildlife sanctuary. It had been killed for its horn, which is highly prized as a medicine in some parts of Asia. The boys report their discovery to the park ranger, Neog, but while they are looking for clues to the crime, they discover that a forest-personnel is the middleman between a gang of poachers and a dealer in horn, who has placed an order for six of them. After a series of escapades the boys manage to outsmart the poachers, assist in their arrest and save the rhinos.
‘Already an internationally acclaimed writer, Dutta was struck by the shortage of available books in English for Indian children, so set about writing his own. Among his other popular books for children is Blind Witness, a mystery story in which the central character, Ramu, a blind child, “witnesses” a murder. It provides a moving and realistic portrayal of blindness and follows Ramu’s determination to convince those around him that he is a credible witness.
‘As well as being packed with action and adventure, Arup Kumar Dutta’s award-winning novels for children provide an insight into Indian life, culture and the country’s natural environment.’ --- Helen Jones in 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up, edited by Julia Eccleshare, Rizzoli International Publications, New York.
‘The Indian English novel has been haunted by the “disease” (Rushdie) of wanting to capture the whole of sub-continental reality. But of late some self-assured region or locality-based narratives have emerged that seem to have shaken off this obsession. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), Pankaj Misra’s The Romantics (2000), Rupa Bajwa’s The Sari Shop (2004), and Amit Chaudhuri’s Calcutta novels are a few examples of this new writing. It is possible to argue that Arup Kumar Dutta anticipated this trend. Dutta along with Ruskin Bond pioneered the creation of Indian English children’s fiction with credible settings, characters, and situations…..
The Kaziranga Trail is the story of three village boys, Dhanai, the son of a Tourist Department mahout, Bubul and Jonti, the twin sons of a village headman, and Dhanai’s elephant, Makhoni. The story is set in the wildlife sanctuary of Kaziranga, home of endangered one-horned rhino, and the villages situated near it. The rhino is often the victim of poachers who hunt it for its horn, which commands a huge price in the market because of its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties.
It is vacation time and the boys are in the sanctuary enjoying a joyride on Makhoni when they come across a dead rhino with its horn removed. Dutta’s skillful use of the detective and mystery story format ensures that the boys make their own choices and decisions. In the absence of their friend, the DFO, Mr Neog, the children devise plans to capture the criminals. To do this they have to think logically and use their knowledge of the world. Though Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti are poor, village boys Dutta does not treat them sentimentally but as focused individuals who know what they want. He strikes a neat balance between their roles as detectives and children. Dutta is also completely at ease in depicting Kaziranga and its surrounding villages. His knowledge of the jungle is evident in such details as the use of a common herb to bandage the elephant’s wound. To assert that he is dealing with a different culture within India, Dutta occasionally employs local words such as “dao” and “beel”. Though he often explains unfamiliar words in English, there are occasions when he refrains from doing so, forcing the non-Assamese reader to puzzle them out by context.
The book does not strain the reader’s credulity unlike some currently popular children’s fiction. Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti move about on a pet elephant, a potentially exotic substitution for the Blytonic dog, but this is quite natural given the story’s context. The plot does not feel contrived and the boys are not wonder boys or specially gifted. One of Dutta’s aims is to create an ecological awareness in his young readers. He manages to do this in an unobtrusive manner without detracting from the entertainment provided by the book. For these reasons, The Kaziranga Trail is an exemplary children’s story. However, a political reading suggests itself when we consider the book’s most appealing aspect – its positive use of the marginal position of children. It is the ability of the child detectives to go unnoticed by adults around them that is their most important asset in solving the mystery.’ --- Prasanta Das, Indian English Writing from the Northeast, www.academia.edu
‘The reason why Arup Kumar Dutta’s books are so popular in my country is that they provide refreshing images to the Japanese readers. In fact, it is the literary force of books like The Kaziranga Trail that has formed a link of cooperation between India and Japan…..’ --- Chitose Suzuki, well known Japanese writer and translator.
‘Arup Kumar Dutta’s The Kaziranga Trail, apart from being an excellent work of fiction, showed excellent authenticity of background and served an important social purpose --- the importance of preventing poaching of rhinos. The story is set in the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary of Assam. Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti accidentally find a rhinoceros which had been killed for its horn, prized for its supposed medicinal properties. When they report this incident to the district forest officer, they are invited to snoop around for clues….. After a series of exciting episodes, the boys outsmart the poachers and assist the rescue team to apprehend the criminals. Graphic descriptions of the manner in which the poachers first trap and then hack the rhino for its horn and the intricate network surrounding the sale of the horns, serves as a strong plea for conservation of wildlife…..” --- Navin Menon in Telling Tales: children’s Literature in India.
"The Kaziranga Trail is an adventure story set in the Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, India, and with its strong focus on environmental issues, it was ahead of its time when it was first published.
‘The story centers on three village boys, Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti, and their young elephant, Makhoni. During the school vacation the boys find a dead rhinoceros in the wildlife sanctuary. It had been killed for its horn, which is highly prized as a medicine in some parts of Asia. The boys report their discovery to the park ranger, Neog, but while they are looking for clues to the crime, they discover that a forest-personnel is the middleman between a gang of poachers and a dealer in horn, who has placed an order for six of them. After a series of escapades the boys manage to outsmart the poachers, assist in their arrest and save the rhinos.
‘Already an internationally acclaimed writer, Dutta was struck by the shortage of available books in English for Indian children, so set about writing his own. Among his other popular books for children is Blind Witness, a mystery story in which the central character, Ramu, a blind child, “witnesses” a murder. It provides a moving and realistic portrayal of blindness and follows Ramu’s determination to convince those around him that he is a credible witness.
‘As well as being packed with action and adventure, Arup Kumar Dutta’s award-winning novels for children provide an insight into Indian life, culture and the country’s natural environment.’ --- Helen Jones in 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up, edited by Julia Eccleshare, Rizzoli International Publications, New York.
‘The Indian English novel has been haunted by the “disease” (Rushdie) of wanting to capture the whole of sub-continental reality. But of late some self-assured region or locality-based narratives have emerged that seem to have shaken off this obsession. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), Pankaj Misra’s The Romantics (2000), Rupa Bajwa’s The Sari Shop (2004), and Amit Chaudhuri’s Calcutta novels are a few examples of this new writing. It is possible to argue that Arup Kumar Dutta anticipated this trend. Dutta along with Ruskin Bond pioneered the creation of Indian English children’s fiction with credible settings, characters, and situations…..
The Kaziranga Trail is the story of three village boys, Dhanai, the son of a Tourist Department mahout, Bubul and Jonti, the twin sons of a village headman, and Dhanai’s elephant, Makhoni. The story is set in the wildlife sanctuary of Kaziranga, home of endangered one-horned rhino, and the villages situated near it. The rhino is often the victim of poachers who hunt it for its horn, which commands a huge price in the market because of its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties.
It is vacation time and the boys are in the sanctuary enjoying a joyride on Makhoni when they come across a dead rhino with its horn removed. Dutta’s skillful use of the detective and mystery story format ensures that the boys make their own choices and decisions. In the absence of their friend, the DFO, Mr Neog, the children devise plans to capture the criminals. To do this they have to think logically and use their knowledge of the world. Though Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti are poor, village boys Dutta does not treat them sentimentally but as focused individuals who know what they want. He strikes a neat balance between their roles as detectives and children. Dutta is also completely at ease in depicting Kaziranga and its surrounding villages. His knowledge of the jungle is evident in such details as the use of a common herb to bandage the elephant’s wound. To assert that he is dealing with a different culture within India, Dutta occasionally employs local words such as “dao” and “beel”. Though he often explains unfamiliar words in English, there are occasions when he refrains from doing so, forcing the non-Assamese reader to puzzle them out by context.
The book does not strain the reader’s credulity unlike some currently popular children’s fiction. Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti move about on a pet elephant, a potentially exotic substitution for the Blytonic dog, but this is quite natural given the story’s context. The plot does not feel contrived and the boys are not wonder boys or specially gifted. One of Dutta’s aims is to create an ecological awareness in his young readers. He manages to do this in an unobtrusive manner without detracting from the entertainment provided by the book. For these reasons, The Kaziranga Trail is an exemplary children’s story. However, a political reading suggests itself when we consider the book’s most appealing aspect – its positive use of the marginal position of children. It is the ability of the child detectives to go unnoticed by adults around them that is their most important asset in solving the mystery.’ --- Prasanta Das, Indian English Writing from the Northeast, www.academia.edu
‘The reason why Arup Kumar Dutta’s books are so popular in my country is that they provide refreshing images to the Japanese readers. In fact, it is the literary force of books like The Kaziranga Trail that has formed a link of cooperation between India and Japan…..’ --- Chitose Suzuki, well known Japanese writer and translator.
‘Arup Kumar Dutta’s The Kaziranga Trail, apart from being an excellent work of fiction, showed excellent authenticity of background and served an important social purpose --- the importance of preventing poaching of rhinos. The story is set in the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary of Assam. Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti accidentally find a rhinoceros which had been killed for its horn, prized for its supposed medicinal properties. When they report this incident to the district forest officer, they are invited to snoop around for clues….. After a series of exciting episodes, the boys outsmart the poachers and assist the rescue team to apprehend the criminals. Graphic descriptions of the manner in which the poachers first trap and then hack the rhino for its horn and the intricate network surrounding the sale of the horns, serves as a strong plea for conservation of wildlife…..” --- Navin Menon in Telling Tales: children’s Literature in India.
Trouble at Kolongijan
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1982
This exciting novel is another prize-winner in the writers’ competition held by Children’s Book Trust New Delhi. Two youngsters, Moina and Ponakan, with the aid of a grownup named Debeshwar, foil a terrible plot by the villainous Tularam to breach the river Kolongijan’s embankment, thereby devastating the village and wreaking vengeance upon its inhabitants.
‘Children can be weaned away from Enid Blyton to more convincing, more challenging adventures like Trouble At
Kolongijan by Arup Kumar Dutta…..’ Anupa Lal in Reader’s Digest.
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1982
This exciting novel is another prize-winner in the writers’ competition held by Children’s Book Trust New Delhi. Two youngsters, Moina and Ponakan, with the aid of a grownup named Debeshwar, foil a terrible plot by the villainous Tularam to breach the river Kolongijan’s embankment, thereby devastating the village and wreaking vengeance upon its inhabitants.
‘Children can be weaned away from Enid Blyton to more convincing, more challenging adventures like Trouble At
Kolongijan by Arup Kumar Dutta…..’ Anupa Lal in Reader’s Digest.
The Blind Witness
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1983
Another award winning thriller from the pen of Arup Kumar Dutta.
13 year old Ramu is blind. But he has been compensated for the loss of one of his five senses by sharpening of the other four, especially that of hearing. Ramu has an uncanny ability to identify people by their voices and footsteps. One day he hears gunshots and learns that his friend and confidante Mr. Gopalan has been shot dead. He had heard the footsteps of the killers as also their voices and knows he can identify them. But when he approaches the police they laugh at the idea of a blind boy being a “witness” to a murder! How Ramu overcomes all obstacles and helps bring the killers to justice makes for breath-taking reading.
The Blind Witness was made into a Hindi feature film titled Netraheen Sakshi by the Children’s Film Society of India. Among the languages it has been translated to are Russian and Japanese, while it has been converted to Braille for blind readers in Japan. It finds mention in the New York Publication 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up edited by Julia Eccleshare. The Blind Witness is also featured in the “Literature of the World Series” brought out by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on 2nd October, 2001, along with books of Satyajit Ray and Ruskin Bond.
‘In some of his other books, Dutta abandons Assam for other settings. But interest in marginality seems to be a constant in his fiction. The Blind Witness, for example, is located in a generic Indian city. In it a poor, blind boy, Ramu, has to suffer the callous comments and the patronizing kindness of people who are unable to treat the blind in a normal way. But Ramu has a keen sense of hearing and this gift allows him to “witness” a scene of murder and help the police nab the murderer and a gang of antique smugglers…..’ --- Prasanta Das, Indian English Writing from the Northeast, www.academia.edu
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1983
Another award winning thriller from the pen of Arup Kumar Dutta.
13 year old Ramu is blind. But he has been compensated for the loss of one of his five senses by sharpening of the other four, especially that of hearing. Ramu has an uncanny ability to identify people by their voices and footsteps. One day he hears gunshots and learns that his friend and confidante Mr. Gopalan has been shot dead. He had heard the footsteps of the killers as also their voices and knows he can identify them. But when he approaches the police they laugh at the idea of a blind boy being a “witness” to a murder! How Ramu overcomes all obstacles and helps bring the killers to justice makes for breath-taking reading.
The Blind Witness was made into a Hindi feature film titled Netraheen Sakshi by the Children’s Film Society of India. Among the languages it has been translated to are Russian and Japanese, while it has been converted to Braille for blind readers in Japan. It finds mention in the New York Publication 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up edited by Julia Eccleshare. The Blind Witness is also featured in the “Literature of the World Series” brought out by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on 2nd October, 2001, along with books of Satyajit Ray and Ruskin Bond.
‘In some of his other books, Dutta abandons Assam for other settings. But interest in marginality seems to be a constant in his fiction. The Blind Witness, for example, is located in a generic Indian city. In it a poor, blind boy, Ramu, has to suffer the callous comments and the patronizing kindness of people who are unable to treat the blind in a normal way. But Ramu has a keen sense of hearing and this gift allows him to “witness” a scene of murder and help the police nab the murderer and a gang of antique smugglers…..’ --- Prasanta Das, Indian English Writing from the Northeast, www.academia.edu
A Story about Tea
Publisher : National Book Trust
Year: 1985
Pranjol, a youngster from Assam, invites his friend Rajvir from Delhi to spend the summer vacations in a tea-garden in Assam managed by his father. During their stay they plunge headlong into an adventure involving stolen tea-chests. The adventure element is deftly woven in with information about tea so that the young reader learns much about the beverage by the time he completes reading the book.
Publisher : National Book Trust
Year: 1985
Pranjol, a youngster from Assam, invites his friend Rajvir from Delhi to spend the summer vacations in a tea-garden in Assam managed by his father. During their stay they plunge headlong into an adventure involving stolen tea-chests. The adventure element is deftly woven in with information about tea so that the young reader learns much about the beverage by the time he completes reading the book.
The Lure of Zangrila
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1986
A team of young mountaineers under the guidance of their mentors sets out on an expedition to scale a virgin peak named Zangrila in the Himalayas. The team-leader Yasu, in the true spirit of a mountaineer, is concerned about the well-being of the entire group. But one member, Charanjit, considers Yasu to be a rival and is bent on achieving personal glory. Will Charanjit be able to conquer the peak on his own? Or will nemesis descend upon him and Zangrila thwart his ambitions as predicted by the Tibetan lama? A thrilling adventure novel with an unusual theme in which not only details of mountain climbing techniques are meticulously depicted, but also the qualities an individual requires to master mountains. The Lure of Zangrila won the NCERT “English Book of the Year” in 1987.
‘Six boys attempt to climb the dangerous peak of Zangrila, not heeding an old lama's warning that in it lived an evil spirit which would not let them succeed. Yasu, the group leader decides to postpone their final ascent by a day but 'the lure of Zangrila' is too much for Charanjit to resist and he decides to attempt it alone, without letting anyone else know. The story is a fascinating one, tense and very exciting. All the emotions, the fear, the jealousy, a young boy's thirst for his personal glory are well brought out. Cleverly woven into the story is the life of a mountain climber, the dangers he has to face and what is needed of him to be a success in this dangerous sport…..’ --- Divya Chari, Goodbooks.in
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1986
A team of young mountaineers under the guidance of their mentors sets out on an expedition to scale a virgin peak named Zangrila in the Himalayas. The team-leader Yasu, in the true spirit of a mountaineer, is concerned about the well-being of the entire group. But one member, Charanjit, considers Yasu to be a rival and is bent on achieving personal glory. Will Charanjit be able to conquer the peak on his own? Or will nemesis descend upon him and Zangrila thwart his ambitions as predicted by the Tibetan lama? A thrilling adventure novel with an unusual theme in which not only details of mountain climbing techniques are meticulously depicted, but also the qualities an individual requires to master mountains. The Lure of Zangrila won the NCERT “English Book of the Year” in 1987.
‘Six boys attempt to climb the dangerous peak of Zangrila, not heeding an old lama's warning that in it lived an evil spirit which would not let them succeed. Yasu, the group leader decides to postpone their final ascent by a day but 'the lure of Zangrila' is too much for Charanjit to resist and he decides to attempt it alone, without letting anyone else know. The story is a fascinating one, tense and very exciting. All the emotions, the fear, the jealousy, a young boy's thirst for his personal glory are well brought out. Cleverly woven into the story is the life of a mountain climber, the dangers he has to face and what is needed of him to be a success in this dangerous sport…..’ --- Divya Chari, Goodbooks.in
Revenge
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1986
Set in the Manabhum jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, Revenge is a thrilling story of ruthless bandits and elephant hunters. The boys, Chowkongpeng and Chowtapan, are on their first elephant trapping expedition along with two adults, the mahout and the trapper. Hupek, the bandit intent on settling old scores with their father, kidnaps them. How the boys escape from their captors and what leads to the end of Hupek constitutes the nail-biting story. This book is beautifully written in simple and unaffected language, with vivid descriptions of jungle life and elephants and is accompanied by life-like illustrations. The author has also described the life of the Khampti tribe, which gels in beautifully with the rest of the story. Revenge was made into a Hindi film titled “Pratishodh.”
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1986
Set in the Manabhum jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, Revenge is a thrilling story of ruthless bandits and elephant hunters. The boys, Chowkongpeng and Chowtapan, are on their first elephant trapping expedition along with two adults, the mahout and the trapper. Hupek, the bandit intent on settling old scores with their father, kidnaps them. How the boys escape from their captors and what leads to the end of Hupek constitutes the nail-biting story. This book is beautifully written in simple and unaffected language, with vivid descriptions of jungle life and elephants and is accompanied by life-like illustrations. The author has also described the life of the Khampti tribe, which gels in beautifully with the rest of the story. Revenge was made into a Hindi film titled “Pratishodh.”
Smack
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1990
Gulu, a serving-boy along with his friend Ravi the shoeshine, is sucked into the murky underworld of drug-peddlers and assassins in this prize-winning, action-packed thriller having an unusual theme. The ingenuity with which the two youngsters extricate themselves from a dangerous predicament makes for exciting reading.
‘The teen-age years are a period of change, often filled with great turmoil. Adolescents identify with books that address their special problems, but young adult fiction is a genre that has yet to establish a strong presence in our country. Books like Arup Dutta’s Smack (CBT; 1989) did tackle issues like drug dealing…..’ --- Deepa Agarwal: Children’s Literature in India.
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 1990
Gulu, a serving-boy along with his friend Ravi the shoeshine, is sucked into the murky underworld of drug-peddlers and assassins in this prize-winning, action-packed thriller having an unusual theme. The ingenuity with which the two youngsters extricate themselves from a dangerous predicament makes for exciting reading.
‘The teen-age years are a period of change, often filled with great turmoil. Adolescents identify with books that address their special problems, but young adult fiction is a genre that has yet to establish a strong presence in our country. Books like Arup Dutta’s Smack (CBT; 1989) did tackle issues like drug dealing…..’ --- Deepa Agarwal: Children’s Literature in India.
Save the Pool
Publisher: Ratna Sagar Year: 1990 The three Kaziranga boys, Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti, atop their pet elephant Makhoni, are once more out on adventure. Poachers have trespassed into the wildlife sanctuary, poisoning the water bodies to catch fish in bulk numbers. They have to be identified, stopped and caught before they can wreak further havoc to the pristine environment of Kaziranga. In a second adventure the boys help rescue a baby elephant which had fallen into a pit during a stampede. |
Oh Deer!
Publisher: Ratna Sagar Year: 1997 Two more adventures of the Kaziranga boys, Dhanai, Bubul and Jonti. A killer is on the loose in Kaziranga, though it is a two-legged one! Unscrupulous individuals cherish deer meat and this heartless poacher supplies them with venison. The boys have to use all their wits to identify the killer and have him brought to justice. In a second adventure the boys help save a stray fawn from being slaughtered by a frenzied mob. A writer who sought to rouse environmental concerns much before it became the “fashionable” thing to do, Arup Kumar Dutta’s role is unparalleled. |
The Crystal Cave
Publisher: National Book Trust Year: 1997 Thenyak and Changun are a brother and sister duo of the Nocte tribe which dwells in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh in India. The Nocte village in which they live had once been famous for the salt it made by drying water from a salt-spring. In a landlocked area where salt had been a precious commodity, this had made the village prosperous. However, the art of making salt had died out and the children are bent on discovering why, thereby getting a feel of their lost legacy. |
Footprints in the Sand
Publisher: Scholastic Year: 1999 This is yet another thriller from the master story teller Arup Kumar Dutta. The brother and sister duo Arnab and Paloma, vacationing with their mother in Goa, make friends with a local lad named Bompa. Strolling on the beach collecting sea-shells they come across a set of mysterious footprints which lead them to a seemingly unoccupied villa. Their suspicions roused, the children undertake investigations and stumble upon a terrible plot. ‘The book is fast moving. The suspense and action thrills the reader to read on. The simplicity of the language enables children to read on their own without any difficulty in understanding. The book is so exciting that it is impossible to keep it down without finishing…..’ --- Devika Velayudh in Bookbuzz. |
The Counterfeit Treasure
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2001
Arnab and Paloma are off to another adventure, this time in the beautiful northeastern state of Meghalaya. They befriend a Khasi girl named Yuriancy and together embark on an exciting adventure involving secret caves, hidden cache of counterfeit notes and desperadoes intent on eliminating them. The Counterfeit Treasure has been translated into Italian under the title La Mano Di Pietra in Italian by Altrimondi publishers.
‘Travelling to Meghalaya (a beautiful Indian region near Bangladesh) with their father, twelve-year-old Paloma and her brother Arnab stumble into an exciting adventure. Soon after their arrival, they befriend Yuri, a local girl, and together they secretly start exploring a cave nearby. When they discover that a gang of counterfeit printers has hidden away their treasure there, events get out of control; still, the children are saved and return home as heroes. Arup Kumar Dutta not only tells a vivacious and gripping detective story, he also acquaints the readers with the life and different cultures in a rural region of India. The detailed landscape descriptions will certainly arouse the readers' interest in the country…..’ White Ravens, India.
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2001
Arnab and Paloma are off to another adventure, this time in the beautiful northeastern state of Meghalaya. They befriend a Khasi girl named Yuriancy and together embark on an exciting adventure involving secret caves, hidden cache of counterfeit notes and desperadoes intent on eliminating them. The Counterfeit Treasure has been translated into Italian under the title La Mano Di Pietra in Italian by Altrimondi publishers.
‘Travelling to Meghalaya (a beautiful Indian region near Bangladesh) with their father, twelve-year-old Paloma and her brother Arnab stumble into an exciting adventure. Soon after their arrival, they befriend Yuri, a local girl, and together they secretly start exploring a cave nearby. When they discover that a gang of counterfeit printers has hidden away their treasure there, events get out of control; still, the children are saved and return home as heroes. Arup Kumar Dutta not only tells a vivacious and gripping detective story, he also acquaints the readers with the life and different cultures in a rural region of India. The detailed landscape descriptions will certainly arouse the readers' interest in the country…..’ White Ravens, India.
The Boy Who Became King
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Year: 2004
A raft carrying a beautiful queen, a village Brahmin who rescues her and brings up her son after she dies, a jealous elder-queen, a weak king, court intrigues, a spy who disguises himself as a wandering minstrel --- all these and more go to make a gripping tale.
‘The Boy Who Became King by award winning Assamese author, Arup Kumar Dutta, is an enchanting tale set in the Brahmaputra valley. The author deftly weaves a tale of cunning and villainy, of heroism and courage, of betrayal and loyalty that travels between the lush green forests and fast flowing Lohit, and the seat of the ancient Ahom kingdom, Charaideo. Even today a visit to this ancient site with its many maidams or burial mounds made over the tombs of the Ahom kings, fills one with wonder and awe. The sense of trespassing on the past is palpable and stays with one. Based on an episode in the chronicles of the Ahoms, a martial Shan tribe who had crossed into the Brahmaputra valley from Myanmar in the thirteenth century, this simply told story also works on the level of an introduction to the history of a little known region. It is a history that is not taught in schools in the ‘mainland’, a history of a region on the periphery facing problems of marginalization and prejudice, a history that must be recognized and made known…..’ Preeti Gill, editor of Zubaan.
Publisher: Rupa Publications
Year: 2004
A raft carrying a beautiful queen, a village Brahmin who rescues her and brings up her son after she dies, a jealous elder-queen, a weak king, court intrigues, a spy who disguises himself as a wandering minstrel --- all these and more go to make a gripping tale.
‘The Boy Who Became King by award winning Assamese author, Arup Kumar Dutta, is an enchanting tale set in the Brahmaputra valley. The author deftly weaves a tale of cunning and villainy, of heroism and courage, of betrayal and loyalty that travels between the lush green forests and fast flowing Lohit, and the seat of the ancient Ahom kingdom, Charaideo. Even today a visit to this ancient site with its many maidams or burial mounds made over the tombs of the Ahom kings, fills one with wonder and awe. The sense of trespassing on the past is palpable and stays with one. Based on an episode in the chronicles of the Ahoms, a martial Shan tribe who had crossed into the Brahmaputra valley from Myanmar in the thirteenth century, this simply told story also works on the level of an introduction to the history of a little known region. It is a history that is not taught in schools in the ‘mainland’, a history of a region on the periphery facing problems of marginalization and prejudice, a history that must be recognized and made known…..’ Preeti Gill, editor of Zubaan.
Adventure Stories, Golden Set
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 2003
A collection of four of Arup Kumar Dutta’s prize-winning adventure novels --- The Kaziranga Trail, Trouble at Kolongijan, The Blind Witness and Smack.
Publisher: Children’s Book Trust
Year: 2003
A collection of four of Arup Kumar Dutta’s prize-winning adventure novels --- The Kaziranga Trail, Trouble at Kolongijan, The Blind Witness and Smack.
Adventures in Kaziranga
Publisher: Ratna Sagar Year: 2009 A collection of four of Arup Kumar Dutta’s YA novellas set in Kaziranga --- Save the Pool, Oh Deer!, Baby Elephant and Lonely Deer. |
Adventure Omnibus
Publisher: Anwesha Year: 2014 A collection of two of Arup Kumar Dutta’s reprinted YA novels --- Lure of Zangrila and Revenge. |
