The Anthonian Literary Club

The Calcutta Book Fair and Me

Main entrance

While walking in the Milan Mela ground, looking at the pavilion of Italy, the theme country of this year’s Book Fair, I became nostalgic of this signature cultural event of Kolkata. Over the years, since I was a student of St. Anthony’s High School, I have been visiting this great congregation of publishers, booksellers, book lovers and from this year of writers too. As a school student the book fair was of special importance because it offered an awe-inspiring collection of books on diverse topics at a single place with a multitude people browsing and buying the printed and bound sheets of vellum. The awe may have receded with the passage of time but the love for books has grown - the love that began on the soft grass of the Maidan near Park Street crossing has persisted with a greater intensity on the hard tiled ground of Milan Mela near Science City crossing.

Through the years

In 1997 when a devastating fire devoured the Book Fair on the Maidan, within days it had resurrected itself from the ashes like a phoenix. That year, not to mourn the tragedy but to commemorate that re-opening of the fair, I had bought Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali from the the book fair. In the year 2000 the Book Fair celebrated its Silver Jubilee year. And from this year the inaugural Kolkata Literary Meet has become a part of the Kolkata Book Fair. The excitement just increases. So no longer it is just books to browse but writers to meet and listen too. The Literary Meet held between 26th January and 31st January was a seminal event attended by writers like Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Mohammed Hanif, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Vikram Seth and many more. It consisted of twenty-six sessions with the writers spread over the six days followed by afterhours of music and entertainment on each day. There was also a writing competition for youngsters on the sidelines. (Visit http://www.kolkatalitmeet.in/ for details)

No doubt Vikram Seth was the star attraction of this meet, having preferred the Kolkata event over the recently concluded Jaipur one. On the first day in session 2 titled “Confluences” he was in conversation with Ruchir Joshi about his new book The Rivered Earth as well as his other works. And on the last day in session 24 titled “Inheritance and Influence” he was in discussion with his mother Leila Seth, moderated by Sandip Roy. Both the mother and son were mobbed by autograph and photograph hunters after the session. Vikram Seth’s books like The Golden Gate, A Suitable Boy, An Equal Music, Two Lives, and Leila Seth’s book for children on constitutional morality and her memoir On Balance were available to buy and get them inscribed by the writers themselves. 

Even though the literary meet is over and celebrities like Imran Khan, who attended the event, have left the shores of Kolkata, the enthusiasm of the book lovers should not deplete as the book fair will continue till the weekend. There are the little magazine stalls, the food court, the children’s book section apart from the usual book stalls of various publishers from around the world. And there is the British Council reading room celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Dickens. Both the British Council and the American Centre offer memberships of their libraries at discounted rate in the Book Fair. So it is not only the necessity of buying books that attracts one to the book fair but the whole atmosphere of it - of people thronging and jostling to glimpse and touch and feel the covers that envelop knowledge and thoughts. Soon this involvement with books becomes an affair to cherish and enrich oneself with. Certainly that has been the case with me and possibly it is true for many others too. 

- Dr. Amit Shankar Saha