Rising star of the week
Arjo’s The lost love story

It's often said that directors have more responsibilities than any other person working in the film. Actors or the other members of the crew only follow the orders of the director. What if the director is only an eight year-old boy? Surprised?

Well most of you might have already known about the exclusive work done by this kid from The Daily Star but we thought of bringing this young star exclusively for the RS readers. Yes…our rising star of the week is Arjo Shrestho, who has directed an interesting 10-minute film called The Lost Love Story. Not only that, he has also won an honorary diploma at the Tempara Film Festival in Finland. 534 filmmakers from USA, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa took part in this festival.

Arjo is the son of renowned filmmaker K M Mithu and artist Kanak Chanpa Chakma. And now lets see what Arjo has to say about the film, 'It's a film where a girl is eager to help a street vendor Chandu whom she meets while coming from the school. This wasn't as easy as she thought as her father was reluctant to help Chandu because he was saving every bit of his money for her future. Finally her dissidence gives the film a gentle ending'. 'The part of the young girl is played by my younger sister Shiropa and the characters of the parents were performed by Shahidul Alam Sachhu and Shireen Bokul, the well-known faces of our country.

Utsho played the role of Chandu', answered Arjo when asked about the casting of the film. We asked him if he was nervous when he directed people who were much more experienced and elder than him, and his confident reply was, 'No, I wasn't nervous at all.' According to him his parents inspired him the most. He didn't forget to mention that his father helped him during work.

When asked about his idols, Sachin Tendulkar tops the list! As you all can guess, Arjo's favorite sports are cricket and basketball. His ambition is to become a cricketer like Tendulkar. He has got a favorite pet. A black and white colored cat. 'I call him Bhaiya as he is older than me in age and I love him a lot', he admitted.

Besides directing and winning awards for this film, Arjo has also won award for paintings from the Shishu Academy at the age of six. If not a cricketer, then he desires to be an artist like his parents. 'I like to read books and play computer games in my spare time'. A remarkable thing is that his favourite subject is maths, when most of the students of his age are afraid of this subject. This simple thing also indicates that he is a courageous boy. He started making the film from February of this year and now by this April he is so famous! He really deserves a pat on his shoulder for this. This is not the end, few days ago his touching and inspiring paintings were seen at the Gallery Tone. They were highly acclaimed by people.

Besides being the son of the famous parents, Arjo himself has started collecting fame for himself. He is keen to start his new project soon. We'll be looking forward to that. 'Shrestho' means 'the best', and he certainly is doing justice to his name through his works. Best wishes from the RS team along with the readers to Arjo for his achievements and also for the years ahead him. Well, Let's wait and watch another star rise up high and light up the globe with his talent.

By Syeda Nafiza Ahmed

Campus news

Yuri Gagarin science fair

The Yuri Gagarin Science Fair was organised by the Bangladesh Astronomical Association and the Russian Cultural Center in commemoration of the 70th birth anniversary of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

Pundits, the educators, endorsed this two-day event at the Russian Cultural Center. An inter-school quiz competition (March 15), an art competition for juniors (March 14), and the showing of a series of documentaries were part of this event, which also featured discussions and exhibits related to astronomy. School-goers from Dhaka's most reported schools blessed the event with their participation.

The champions in Astral, the inter-school quiz competition were from the Aga Khan School, and they were Mirza Arman Ahmed and Ahsan Imon Nawroj. The first runners-up, hailing from Cephalon International School were Manal M Rahman, and Priyanka Chowdhury, while Saint Joseph High School was the second runner-up, with Adittya Noman and Chandra Shekhar. The inter-school art competition was for students from classes 1 to 3, and the winner was Maisha Maliha from Scholastica. Second in line was Afrida Kamal from Sunnydale, who was followed by H.M. Shabbir of the Dhaka Residential Model College.

Shirin Hussain Matin and Squadron Leader Syed M. Akhtar kindly agreed to be the chief guests at the occasion. Shojib from PUNDITS was also present at the prize-giving ceremony, which saw every participant being rewarded for their participation.

Attempting to save the crow
With the slogan: "Do something, anything, to repay earth's credit", BANDHU (Belfry Activists for Nations Development and Human Unison) is working out plans on how to conserve birds. What intrigued me was that they were attempting to conserve crows too.

Out of my curiosity I enquired why they were trying to save such an ugly-looking bird. With a smile the members of the organisation explained that crows help to protect our environment. This is because in Dhaka city every day approximately 3000 to 3500 tonnes of waste is produced and not all of this can be collected by the Dhaka City Corporation. Crows eat this waste and by doing so ensure that humans do not get affected by diseases. They also explained to me that with the population of Dhaka city increasing, it is absolutely imperative for us to increase the number of crows. Apparently, with a little bit of effort and willingness we can easily achieve this.

Although the idea of this probably sounds grotesque, we should always keep in mind that crows help to keep our city clean and that they do so for free

Presently, seven people are involved with BANDHU. They are: Uday Shankar Chaki, Khaled Mahfuz Saif, Anisur Rahman, Fahaduzzaman Rumi, Sagar Sarker Sajal, Shoma Dutta and Nazia Ahmed. While conversing with them they told me that the biggest problem that they face in carrying out their work is shortage of funds. Apparently, all of their work is self-financed. They informed me that with a bit of financial support they could have done a lot more to raise awareness about environmental issues. Another problem that they stated is that they lack manpower. They mentioned that they would like to have more people working for BANDHU. If anybody is interested in joining the organisation, you can do so by getting in touch with any of the members. They can be contacted at: 15/10 Modhubag, Moghbazar, Dhaka 1217. Alternatively you can contact them via email at: bandhu01@msn.com

BANDHU is indeed a praiseworthy initiative. This is even more so when you consider that all the members of the organisation are under the age of thirty. Through their work they are helping to ensure a cleaner and therefore a safer environment.

It might be mentioned here that BANDHU was formed on 1 July 2001 by a few enthusiastic students in order to raise awareness about the numerous environmental problems that Bangladesh is plagued with. Ever since its inception the voluntary organisation has held numerous seminars at various schools and colleges. These seminars are held to inform children that they all have to work together if we are to save our beloved Bangladesh from an ecological disaster.

By Sayeed Mahmud Nizam

Book review
"Haari Potar and the Chembar of Secrates"

Potter-mania had long gripped the world and today innumerable Potter fans are around us. Truly, the Harry Potter books have won worldwide success. It isn't surprising either. J. K. Rowling's skill and innovation had indeed produced masterpieces. Given all the popularity and success the books had achieved, it was clear that Bengali translations of the books were in order. Into the picture comes Mr Moniruzzaman, riding to the aid of Bengali readers.

Yes, as you might have guessed, this is a book review. Contrary to whatever one might think, though this review is written by a teenager to be precise. So it is natural for the writer to have some personal opinions.

Firstly, the names of the characters and locations are marvellously mispronounced in the translation. Astoundingly, the trio is renamed as Haari, Rone, and Harmeon. Their school is renamed Hogarts. Other people's names aren't excused either: Hag-reed (Hagrid); Mr Ueejlee (Mr Weasley); Dum-bale-dor (Dumbledore). Names of different places are mispronounced too, such as, Liki Coldron (Leaky Cauldron). Also, the Ministry of Magic is translated as Magic Montronaloy. This renaming process goes on throughout the entire translated book and very few names have escaped this process.

J. K. Rowling possesses an extraordinary control over the English language and very often uses rarely used words in her books to express subtle meanings. Very often readers stumble upon words she had used emphasise extra details. Anyway, they are almost completely missing in the translation. For example, there are great differences between the words "snapped", "barked" and "retorted". Nevertheless, all these represent spoken conversation. On the translation, the Bengali counterpart of the word "said" is used to represent those words. In addition, simple words replace almost all other meaningful words.

Apart form all these obvious slip-ups, the quality of the translation can be questioned. Rowling's excellent writing makes readers involved with the Harry Potter books. There are subtle expressions of excitement and happiness, pain and sorrow in her writing. However, all these are missing from the translation. The translator translated the book sentence by sentence, hampering the smooth flow of the story. The reader would miss the unique enjoyment of reading Harry Potter books. Simple, rather inexpressive words had replaced Rowling's significant words. Therefore, the translation is merely able to tell the readers what happened in the story.

Bengali literature is a rich and colourful one. A book as exciting as the "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" deserves to be available in the rich and vibrant Bengali language. Yes, we should have good translations of great classics. If the translation is agonizing, it loses its usefulness. Yet we should appreciate that the translator took the initiative to translate the book, for there aren't many great books that have been translated into Bengali. The effort of Mr Moniruzzaman, the translator, should have been a commendable one, but unfortunately, the translation simply doesn't allow us to praise the effort.

By Niloy