I was probably twelve or thirteen the first time I read Tin Goyenda, and it was an experience I didn’t know would change my life. 

I loved reading and stories from an early age. Back then, you could buy a small story book printed in the size of a booklet for only Tk5. My reading started with ghost stories and stories of Sindabad in the form of these booklets. Being rather young, I was not quite familiar with the vast possibilities of novels and stories with an actual plot. 

All these changed one day when one of my cousins came to visit. He was a few years older than me and he had this book with him.  It was a small book with dirty looking newsprint pages. On the cover of the book, there was a scary background of a figure, something I could only guess was a wretch and the title read: Tin Goyenda, volume-25, Rakib Hasan. 

What a peculiar name for a book; I had thought on first sight. Then I proceeded to ask my cousin about the book, who shortly described a story that seemed weird more than anything to my young mind. And my cousin spent a lot of time reading that book instead of playing with me, which annoyed me. So just to give him back the same treatment, I started reading the book when he asked me to play. 

These were the actions of a young teenager. Out of spite, I started reading the second story called: Kukur Kheko Dainey (The witch that devoured dogs) because it sounded more interesting than the other stories. 

The story started with three teenagers, almost my age who were undertaking an adventure. Kishore Pasha, the leader was a genius with exceptional intelligence. Musa Aman, a young athlete who was the muscle of the group and a bookish skinnier boy called Robin Milford who loved to read and is called the moving encyclopedia.  

The descriptions in the pages were enough to create an image in mind which was quite vivid. By the time I had read the first ten pages, there was a very clear picture in mind and somehow, I could relate to these three teenagers. 

I didn’t know it back then, but those first ten pages had me hooked already. 

For those of you who have read this particular Tin Goyenda story, already know that this is one of the most exciting and thrilling stories of the series. Naturally, by the fifteenth page, I was no longer reading out of spite, but interest. 

By the time I had read thirty pages, I knew I was going to read the rest of the two stories, which I must say took me less time than I thought. This is one of those books that you read in one sitting and young as I was, I couldn’t do it in one sitting; I did it in two.

I remember Musa driving; I remember Robin being the underrated hero and I remember the brilliance of Kishore. Of how it baffled my young mind!

Once I had finished the story of the dog devouring witch, I wanted to read more.

I had to read more.

So, I did and eventually finished the book. 

And then I began searching and asking about Tin Goyenda. 

I found out that it was a series that had more than sixty (at that time) volumes. Each volume had three books or stories in it. It terrified me. Sixty books are a lot of books to read. 

But then I remembered how much fun I had with the book that I had just read and a smile crossed my face. “I have sixty amazing books to look forward to,” I thought to myself and I wasn’t t entirely wrong. 

Most of the books met my expectations, some missing to hit the mark but like most Tin Goyenda fans, I gave it a pass and moved on to the next one. 

I bought my first own Tin Goyenda book, the next month with pocket money. It was volume one because I wanted to start from the beginning and indeed, that was the beginning. 

Ever since then, I had built quite a collection, a collection that boasts almost all the books in the series. A collection that was bought with pocket money, saved money, money for Eid clothes and books that I had asked for as gifts. And I know for a fact that there are thousands of readers in this country who did just the same. 

Sure, a lot has happened with the famous series since then, a lot that we readers do not approve of, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our love for those three teenagers who shall remain unchanged and young forever. 

What Tin Goyenda did was create a reading habit in me, which I found out to be a very helpful habit in my later years. It also created curiosity with its plots and snippets of facts embedded into the stories. This caused me to seek out more about those facts, which in turn, increased my knowledge regarding a lot of different things. 

It was through Tin Goyenda that I came to learn the names of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Hercule Poirot’. It was also Tin Goyenda that taught me perseverance among other things.  

So, regardless of how some of the newer books have turned out, I shall forever remember Tin Goyenda with a fondness.