BHUBANESWAR: After over 17 years of vanishing into oblivion, `Sishulekha’, Orissa’s own Chandamama, has again seen the light of the day with the promise of enriching and entertaining the children in their own language. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled the new version of the premier children’s magazine of the yore here yesterday.
The magazine has undergone wholesome transformation in tune with the changing times and the preferences of the children. Forty-four pages of fables, stories, poetry, information, general knowledge and activities have shed their black and white mould to go full colour and capture the imagination of the children readers.
The magazine would now be published quarterly instead of the monthly editions of the past.
The move to revive the magazine, that had been intrinsic to the development of Oriya language while igniting interest in the mother tongue among the younger generations, started about two years back under the then Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy. Eminent litterateurs led by former Central Sahitya Akademi president Ramakanta Rath had demanded steps from the Government to resume publication of the magazine that had gone out of print since 1992-93.
The efforts resulted in publication of four issues in 2009 but the pages were all in bi-colour. With response to the issue not very encouraging, it was decided to carry out the task under the Odiya Bhasha Pratisthan with multi-coloured issues.
The funding for the project has been derived through the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) which has provision for funding publication of school journals. The first multi-colour issue has been brought out with 48,000 copies, of which most would be distributed among the Government-run schools. About 10,000 would be left for market sale, Pratisthan Director Dr Prafulla Kumar Rath said.
The content for the magazine has been decided by a Board of Editors to make the subjects enjoyable as well as inspiring for the readers. The objective is to reinvigorate the love for Oriya language that is fast fading away among the youngsters, Dr Rath said.