The 40th Kolkata International Book Fair was arranged during January 25, 2016 to February 7, 2016 at the Milan Mela ground behind the ITC Sonar Bangla off the Eastern Metropolitan By Pass. This years theme was the State of Bolivia, a country which has gone through years of struggle and the country that has made the revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara famous who lost his life trying to take forward the struggle for equality.
Though France was also expected to be one of the main participants, it backed out in view of incomplete preparation. However, that didn’t deter a number of visitors from France and French speaking countries like Ivory Coast coming here. There was full participation from many countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam etc.
Excepting for the day of inauguration, the fair was open from 12:00 noon till 8:00 PM and saw millions of visitors. People streamed in from all parts of the city, the places around the city, the other states and so on. Being at a place near the Science City, there were visitors who clubbed their visit with a visit to the Science City.
The cultural capital of India, Kolkata waits for such events. One can see people of all ages, young, middle aged and old moving around with the same enthusiasm throughout the fair. And as the people of this state, specially the city, is known for its ADDA, the gossip about anything under the sky, one can see various ADDA groups having a field day. Interestingly, not all the groups have the people of same age bracket, it might be quite a mixed type.
We started from Lake Gardens at around 10:00 AM and reached the Science City in half an hour flat. The organizers, along with the Kolkata Police have done a commendable job by putting barricades to guide the visitors of the book fair. Sign posts and arrow markings were visible every where so that a first time visitor would also reach without asking for directions.
The fair was very well laid out. Large publishing houses were allotted large pavilions with very adequate lighting and wide corridors for movement. There were adequate number of reasonably clean toilets and wash rooms.
The state of West Bengal had its own pavilion along with statues and constructions depicting the development that is taking palce here.
Once can see famous publishing houses of India and also the state had put up very good collections of famous and upcoming writers.
The stalls from Bangladesh were seen in the fair selling books of famous Bangladeshi writers, who are quite popular in this side of the borders. In fact, no literary festival can be expected to be complete unless a participation from the other side of the border is ensured. This is true not only for literary festivals, its true for other festivals also, be it music, be it drama and so on. This was also visible during the literary meet that took place in the book fair during February 4, 2016 to February 6, 2016. We missed this meet because of preoccupation. We hope we will not miss it next year.
No fair is complete without its share of food stalls for the food loving visit0rs here. Fast foods, kebabs, fries along with traditional savories were seen in abundance. The visitors
were seen crowding around snacks and ice-cream kiosks to have a bit of charge up as most of them had come for a long stay, preferably till the close.
Our visit to fair was really fruitful. We bought a number of books. I could lay my hands on “The First World War” by A.J.P. Taylor. This was first published in 1963. I had bought this book earlier in 1972, but lost it in transit somewhere in 1980’s. I also got “A Farewell to Arms” by Hemingway (Rupa Publications) which I had also lost in transit around the same time. Getting hold of these books really made my day.
I could also purchase a number of Bengali books by my favorite writers which are difficult to get under one roof.
It was a worthwhile experience. I will wait for another year….another fair. Till that time……..
P.K. Bhattacharyya 