A Bengali proverb goes like this – “Bangalir Baro Maashey Tero Parbon” which means the Bengalis celebrate 13 festivals in 12 months. Bengalis love celebrating their culture, traditions and age-old rituals in a grand way so much so that every month we end up celebrating some festival or the other with food, fun and fiesta. The Kolkata Book Fair happens to be one of these Bengali festivals.

Not only religious rituals, Bengalis dearly love reading and discussing literature with each other. With the International Kolkata Book Fair, we grandly celebrate our affinity with books every year, listing it as the 14^th Parbon or festival of the Bengalis. How did it all start? Let’s trace back to the history of the fair and see how far the fair has come.

History of Kolkata Book Fair

1974

Back in 1974, a few young publishers met in Coffee House for their regular Adda session. They discussed about organizing an annual meet up of the book lovers from near and far which can boost up the sales of the books as well. In 1975, keeping the meet up in focus, The Publishers and Booksellers’ Guild was founded.

1976

In 1976, the first book fair which would be later known as the ‘International Kolkata Book Fair, was organised by the Guild. It set up 56 stalls and 34 publishers participated in the fair. The venue was the ground opposite the Academy of Fine Arts. In the same year, The Publishers and Booksellers’ Guild participated in the World Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The latter was the primary inspiration behind the organisation of the Kolkata Book Fair.

1983

The year 1983 was an eventful year for the Book Fair here. Visitors like the delegates from the International Publishers’ Association, Frankfurt Book Fair attended the fair with thousands of visitors from different countries. In the same year the Kolkata Book Fair got international accreditation.

1988

Gradually, the size of the fair grew thanks to the increasing participants. To accommodate a large number of stalls and book lovers, the venue was shifted to Maidan in 1988.

1991

From 1991, the book fair started to have a focal theme. Initially, Indian states became the focal themes and since 1997, a foreign country started becoming focal theme every year. The literature and culture of the focal theme state or country was highlighted during the entire span of the event.

Another major cultural development occurred simultaneously in the Maidan grounds during the Kolkata Book Fair during the 90s. It was the development of the concept of ‘Bangla Music Band’. In the early 90s, talented singers spearheaded by ‘Mohiner Ghoraguli’ founder Goutam Chattopadhyay could be spotted performing impromptu songs in the Maidan ground when the book fair was underway. They would sit with a guiter and go on singing the numbers they composed.

Crowds would gather around maybe with their just bought books in hands and spend hours mesmerized with their performances. The songs told about the common livelihood, common joys and sorrows. The Bangla Band members instantly struck a chord with the fair-goers. Gradually, the Kolkata Book Fair became synonymous with everything the Bengali Culture is all about – Books, Adda, Music, Tea and Food.

1997

The year 1997 was a catastrophic year for the book fair. On the 6^th day of the fair, a fire broke and almost all the book stalls got destroyed. Each publisher incurred heavy loss due to the fire. As phoenix rises from the fire again, the book fair was reorganized with the undying initiative and determination of the Guild, book lovers and the State Government. Huge discounts were available on the books. Many visitors bought books in huge numbers just to support the publishers and lend a hand in solidarity.

2007

However, in the year 2007, the Guild lost the ongoing case filed against them by a few environmentalists. The venue had to be shifted to the Salt Lake Stadium within a day. The footfalls decreased due to inclement weather and poor commuting facilities but the book lovers braved against all odds to attend the fair even in such circumstances.

2008

The Guild organised book fair did not happen in 2008. The Calcutta High Court ruled against the Park Circus Maidan as the prospective venue. The Guild members decided to postpone the annual fair and move to the Supreme Court for legal assurance regarding the book fair venue. Another group organized a smaller fair named ‘Book Fair 2008’ but its efficacy was questioned.

2009

In 2009, the Calcutta Book Fair got a permanent address in Milan Mela Fair Ground. A theme song, “Oi Daakche Boi (Books beckoning)” was made. The organization created different pavilions for the visitors. And the book lovers loved the arrangements. The turnover was huge.

2011

In 2011, the Guild decided to make entry to the book fair free for all.

2014

From 2014, Kolkata Literary Festival was started getting organized during the Book Fair. The eminent writers started to join in the event to discuss the latest trends in literature and take part in healthy criticisms.

2018

In 2018, the address of the Kolkata Book Fair changed again. As the Milan Mela Complex was under renovation, it was held at the Central Park Mela Ground.

Since 2018, the Central Park Mela Ground had been witnessing a considerable number of footfalls of book lovers, writers, publishers and the likes. Just when people have started to think that physical books are a passé, the crowd gathering in different stalls to buy their favourite books, meet their favourite authors and join listening impromptu musical performances have started proving them wrong, in the Fair fortnight, like every other year. 

2021

However, due to the current pandemic situation, the Kolkata Book Fair 2021 had been postponed indefinitely. We would be revealing the Kolkata Book Fair 2021 dates after the Guild fixes them.

The post The 14th Parbon of the Bengalis – The Kolkata Book Fair appeared first on KolkataFusion.

While she stood at the door, thoughts started filling her mind! It began infiltrating her present with the moments of togetherness, the moments when her carefree lover Harish used to make comments on her ‘ugly-beauty’. 

Harish – Her life! Unlike her, he was ‘Std. X fail’ and had not taken any initiative of studying since the day their school teacher had caught them red-handed playing some nasty games in the garden. Riha was a shameless girl, and in spite of all the insults, she had neither stopped loving her childhood romance nor had she stopped going to school. Coming from suburbs, she was one of the rarest species, who had completed studying Std. XII and was working as a nurse at a Government hospital.

On the other hand, her dear man used to drive an auto. Riha’s shift timings were mostly at the wee hours, and that was also their time for romance. They used to meet an hour before her shift and again spend an hour together post her duty hours. She mostly preferred the night shifts as foreplay in the auto was their best sport and the wee hours suited it.

Harish – The fatherless child. He had lost his father at a nascent stage, and his mother was his world. Renu used to work as a cook in a ‘dhaba’ near the EM Bypass, and it seemed nothing else mattered to her except her son. No, his father was not dead, but he had left them for some other lady and lived in the suburb nearby. He used to hit his mother often so the day he left them, they were more relieved than grief-stricken and moreover it wasn’t anything new happening in their ‘chawl.’ Harish and Renu shared a lovely bond, and fortunately for Riha, Renu had accepted her as her prospective daughter-in-law, without any hassle. They often used to go out together, and she was a regular guest at their house. Why were they not married yet? Even Riha didn’t know; might be because of the whimsical dreams of Harish. Riha smiled thinking about them…’his dreams’..

Harish – The dreaming boy! He had big plans. He had started earning at an early age, driving an auto for daily commuters, but he had dreams to be a chauffeur of a Hummer. He loved cars and shared an incredible friendship with the cars. He used to say that he had already taken the first step towards his dream as he already owned an auto when he had asked for Riha’s hands in marriage, from her parents. When he was not driving the auto or spending time with Riha or his other friends, he worked in a garage and was even considered as the best mechanic there. Thanks to his scope of work, Riha had got the chance to ride an i10 one day and a Swift Desire the other day; just yesterday they had to take the Swift Desire to the owner’s house, post repairing for delivery. During these deliveries, Harish used to take her with him, and just a few blocks away from the house he used to drop her near some tea stall. Riha used to wait there for Harish and then they used to walk back home, chatting, talking about the past, and planning for the future. Others might think it to be impossible, but in one occasion, they had even walked all the way from Jadavpur to Chingrighata! When she was with Harish, time flew. Even after ten years, they never seemed to grow bored of each other.

Memories… memories… memories..They knew no bounds and had no end!

Her thoughts were suddenly disrupted by a loud sound from somewhere, and she jolted back to the present. She had to hold the door for balancing herself as the jolt was quite a harsh one. Where was Harish? Had he not gone to purchase gifts for his friend’s marriage? She was at the hospital when she heard about the accident because of which the slum dwellers had set five buses on fire. She was waiting for him to come and was cursing him for being late when she had heard about the two guys being hit by a bus post breaking the signal.

As she was trying hard to bind the threads of her thoughts, she saw four men entering from the main door of the hut with a mass wrapped in a white sheet. The man leading them, shouted something like,” Mashi, we have killed those scoundrels!” Even before she could fathom what was happening, she thought she saw a smirk on Renu’s lips, and with tear laden eyes, she looked up at Riya to only utter those few words, before turning toward the dead body of Harish,

“Go away, girl; you have no place in this house anymore.”

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