A man is going round hawking books at the Book Fair with a hat on his head that says Boi Melatey Pheriwalar 50 Bochhor.

Alok Dutta is a familiar face to regulars at the Book Fair. But given this is the 48th edition of the Book Fair, the claim is raising eyebrows. But turn the pages of history and the logic becomes apparent. The Book Fair did not take place in 2007 due to uncertainty over the venue and in 2021 due to the pandemic. “I have been a regular at the Book Fair since the first year in 1976. It used to be held at the Maidan then,” says Dutta, clutching a bundle of chapbooks. Hanging around his neck is a framed poster, that promotes Taak niye tuktak, a chapbook priced at Rs 10. The title bears promise of humour and is his highest-selling title.

The bespectacled man with a white beard is wary of revealing his age. But it was when he had just “graduated from half pant to full” that he started attending the book fair, he says. “My friends and I were associated with a little magazine called Kanthaswar. We came to the fair to sell that.”

In 1984, their group brought out Swayamnijukti, which carried news relevant to small businesses. “We sold all copies that we printed at the Book Fair. Now it is a fully literary magazine but the name remains the same as we had registered it,” he said.

He remembers the years at the Maidan with much fondness. “Soft music used to play. The ambiance was conducive to buying books. Announcements were not at ear-splitting volume.”

He also remembers the year of the fire — 1997 — when the fair went up in flames. “Buddhababu (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then home minister) took steps quickly to restart the fair,” he said.

Milan Mela was the worst venue in his view. “The days when it got crowded the fair became the happy hunting ground of molesters and pickpockets,” he said.

The shift to Salt Lake has been beneficial, he feels. “It is not excessively crowded. And people come here with a mind to buy books,” he summed up.