{"id":19460,"date":"2022-07-19T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T01:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalindian.com\/youth\/\/?post_type=story&p=19460"},"modified":"2022-07-19T19:38:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T14:08:28","slug":"from-midnapore-to-cambridge-bal-puraskar-winner-souhardya-de-is-bringing-indic-heritage-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/old.globalindian.com\/youth\/story\/cover-story\/from-midnapore-to-cambridge-bal-puraskar-winner-souhardya-de-is-bringing-indic-heritage-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"From Midnapore to Cambridge: Bal Puraskar winner Souhardya De is bringing Indic heritage to the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

(July 19, 2022) <\/strong>At 18, as his peers are busy trying to decide on a college, Souhardya De is the author of two books and has a long list of achievements to his merit. Mythology is his subject of choice, the teen from Midnapore wrote his first book when he was 13 years old – his debut novel,\u00a0Scion of Suryavansh: The Ramayana\u00a0<\/em>was published in 2017. <\/span>Two years later, he released his second,\u00a0The Chronicles of Suryavansh: The Rise and Fall of the Suryavanshis.<\/em>\u00a0In 2021, he won the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar,<\/span> in the art and culture category and is part of the prestigious PM-Young Upcoming Versatile Author (YUVA) Mentorship Scheme, a 75-member cohort of authors chosen from 16,000 applicants. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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“These<\/span> honours only motivate me to bring a greater understanding of religion, spirituality, philosophy, and culture, especially among Gen-Z, through my writing,<\/span>” the prodigy says, in an interview with Global Indian<\/em><\/a>. <\/span>His accolades aren\u2019t for his writing alone, however. He was also recognised<\/span> in the Dettol Salutes Campaign for spreading awareness among his community during the Covid<\/span>-19 pandemic, teaching them how to ward off infection. The<\/span> talented young writer who has just graduated from high school will head off to the University of Cambridge, where he has received a bursary for his UGCert in history.<\/p>\n

Five months after winning the Bal Puraskar, Souhardya received the Colonelcy, the highest civilian honour from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, USA. He had won the Gold Award in the Queen\u2019s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2021, patronised by the Duchess of Cornwall.<\/p>\n

Souhardya is also an elected member of the Royal Historical Society, University College London<\/span> and the Royal Asiatic Society for Great Britain and Ireland. Closer home, he has been <\/span>named the Most Promising Literary Talent <\/span>2022 by the\u00a0Dainik Jagran\u00a0<\/em>Group.<\/p>\n

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Revitalising the\u00a0glorious past<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Already considered on par with the acclaimed mythological fiction author Amish Tripathi, Souhardya has just finished the manuscript on the life of freedom fighter Lal Pratap Singh, who showed great gallantry during the uprising of 1857 \u2014 a novella under the Prime Minister\u2019s YUVA Scheme. “The fellowship was instituted last year by the Prime Minister,<\/span> to encourage books on India\u2019s unsung heroes to commemorate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav \u2014 75 Years of Indian Independence.”<\/p>\n

“The plot primarily\u00a0revolves around\u00a0Singh\u2019s\u00a0resistance\u00a0shown to General\u00a0Campbell, who came to recapture Lucknow\u00a0during that period,” Souhardya explains. His books,\u00a0Scion of\u00a0Suryavansh<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Chronicles of\u00a0Suryavansh,<\/em>\u00a0are part of the Shree Ram Katha series<\/em> that have been written in both English and French. His fourth book is in the process of publication by Rupa Publications. The talented writer is also a columnist of repute, with words in popular print and digital media like the Sunday Guardian, Scroll, Lokmat Times Zest, South China Morning Post, The Statesman,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Outlook Traveller<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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