In April 1885 (Baishakh 1292), the monthly magazine Balaka, edited by Jnanadanandini (wife of Satyendranath), was being published regulraly. She was staying in Calcutta for her children's education. Thakurbari was full of boys and girls growning up together, such as Sudhindranath, the fourth son of Dwijendranath, Balendranath, son of Birendranath, Hitendranath, son of Hemendranath and of the house no.5, Gaganendranath, Samarendranath, Abanindranath, the three brothers. Jnanadanandini knew Rabindranath was to be given the charge of managing the magazine Balaka, though she was at that time editing it. Rabindranath took the responsibility of writing many articles for the magazine. He wrote poetry, essay, letters, comics, a novel in the name of Mukut, and a big novel Rajarshi within a year. The expression of the thought and sense of Balaka were far reaching, sometimes beyond the world of the children, which was evident from each of its issue.
After a few days Rabindranath expressed his deep sorrow and wrote that the literature written for children, recently, was oversimplified. Every regarded the child as a mere child and not as a human being. In his opinion, the books meant for the children should be such that they would understand some portion of it and some other portion might be out of their reach, which they would understand with the help of imagination. He said that in his boyhood he read books from the library from one end to the other. Some portion he could follow, some not but both effected his mind. Many of the articles published in Balaka , strictly speaking, were not actually meant for children. Rabindranath's ideas about study material of the children was explained in "JibanSmriti". He wrote in Reminiscences that during his boyhood days he had finished both the readable and unreadable books.
