A scene from the animated version of Ray?s Ekushe Ain

Siliguri, Aug. 5: Besides chasing Jerry around, Tom will now have to look out for his counterpart from Ha Ja Ba Ra La.

Srijan Sena, a local socio-cultural organisation, has the stage ready for the desi cat and other Sukumar Ray creations to wean children away from their Cartoon Network favourites like Johnny Bravo and Dexter.

?The two-day Abol Tabol Utsav is aimed at acquainting our children with legendary characters from Bengali literature,? said Partha Pratim Mitra, a member of Srijan Sena. ?It will be a fight against the cultural invasion of young minds by the West.?

?Children will stage Sukumar Ray?s works like Abak Jalpan and Pagla Dashu,? said Amitava Kanjilal, another member. ?Art and recitation competitions will also be held. A quiz contest on Ray?s works will be an added attraction at the programme.?

?Our members have designed T-shirts with indigenous cartoon characters painted on them. We will also have stalls selling children?s books in Bengali,? Mitra added.

In order to introduce the joy of spinning lattus (top) to the video-game-addicted generation, Abol Tabol Utsav has a special competition for lattu spinners lined up.