Booklovers browse through the collection at Oxford Bookstore. Picture by Rashbehari Das

It had kicked off as an online branding tool for the brick-and-mortar store. Today, oxfordbookstore.com has developed into a launch pad for budding creativity.

After the success of the e-author project, the largest online talent-search contest for budding authors, the website recently organised an online Haiku poetry competition. The response was overwhelming, with over 5,000 participants, including entries from all over the country, and even from the UK and the US.

Haiku is a type of poetry from Japanese culture, combining form, content, and language in a ?meaningful, yet compact form?. The challenge of Haiku is to put the poem?s meaning and imagery in the reader?s mind in only 17 syllables, with just three lines of poetry.

?We have always tried to do things that are intellectually stimulating, so that the website can maintain a lively, interactive profile,? says Rajiv Chowdhury, general manager, E. Books World Pvt Ltd (Calcutta, Mumbai, Bangalore & Goa), the company behind oxfordbookstore.com. Results of the Haiku contest were announced last month and the poems read out at Oxford Bookstore. ?Once we decided to hold the Haiku contest, we got in touch with the Japanese consulate office in Calcutta and the officials there helped create the programme and even flew down a Haiku expert for the purpose,? Chowdhury adds.

He indicated that the fourth edition of ?e-author? could have a short story theme, and the next one, ?may be on poetry?, since the need is to broadbase the top line. The contest, which was born in 2001, has aimed to create a unique platform for aspiring amateur authors to showcase their literary experiments and creative endeavours in prose till now.

The content team, which creates the online talent search competition, has had the unstinting support of authors like Amitav Ghosh, Anita Nair, Taslima Nasreen, Sudha Murty, Shashi Deshpande, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Shamik Bandopadhyay, Amit Chaudhuri, M.J. Akbar, Aniruddha Bahal and Vikram Chandra.

They have all judged the entries at different points. This online contest has also grown through the ?fabulous response? from contestants nationwide. ?In 2004, close to 2,200 entries were received from aspiring writers competing for one of the top three spots and prize money worth Rs 1 lakh,? observes a website spokesperson.

All the winning e-novels have been published online at www.oxfordbookstore.com. The website also offers online interviews with authors like Gunter Grass, John Fowles, Sidney Sheldon, Paco Underhill, Malcolm Gladwell, Mahasveta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Ruskin Bond, Taslima Nasreen and Amit Chaudhuri.

The online launch pad for budding writers has also incorporated various interactive features like Rhyme and Reason, where one can submit poems or the Bookworm?s Web, which organised a national creative writing contest for children (8-13 years).

For the politically conscious, there is a section called Periscope, which discusses political issues. For latest updates in the world of publishing, there are author interviews and book reviews. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam recently gave an exclusive quote on his book The Luminous Sparks to the content team of the website.

It has also collaborated with popular websites like those of Penguin, www.randomhouse.com and indiainfoline.com. ?Oxford Bookstore is the only completely integrated online-offline bookstore in the country with access to 6 million titles worldwide,? says Chowdhury.

Subhro Saha

Maestro?s many moods

The Satyajit Ray exhibition at Nandan. Picture by Amit Datta

Around 130 images of the man and his many moods. Satyajit Ray on the sets of his films, directing actors and actresses, sharing a light moment with them, relaxing, taking a break, working hard... The director?s expressions, from laughter to concentration, captured on camera. All that remains are photographs, but their value is priceless.

The exhibition Moments of Satyajit Ray, a photomontage by Aloke Mitra, was inaugurated on Friday evening at Nandan by veteran film-maker Tarun Majumdar. The event marks the 20th year of Nandan and the 50th year of Pather Panchali.

The display drew curious Calcuttans, most of whom left with a wistful look in their eyes. Even Feluda, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, who was in Nandan for the inauguration of the Kolkata Short Film Festival, dropped by for a closer look.

The exhibition comprises black-and-white images taken by photographer Mitra through the years, from 1953 till Ray?s death in 1992. It begins with a rare snap of Ray screening the unfinished Pather Panchali for Dr Bidhan Chandra Ray, seeking funds to complete the classic.

What follows is a treat for Ray fans. From the sets of Paras Pathar and Jalsaghar, Devi and Seemabaddha, Monihara and Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Agantuk and Shatranj Ke Khiladi, with Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Madhabi Mukherjee, Rabi Ghosh, Chhabi Biswas, Uttam Kumar and even Suchitra Sen? It was all caught on photographic film.

The moments are interspersed with moods. There?s a series on the young Ray, a rising star, and a section on the ageing maestro, and the last journey from his Bishop Lefroy Road residence.

Mitra?s lens has also captured him at other events ? being honoured by French President Mitterand with the Legion of Honour at National Library, at a cricket match, collecting money for a cause, on the new Metro Railway, at Calcutta airport, receiving awards and attending cultural events.

He?s at home with Pandit Ravi Shankar, at a function with Raj Kapoor, seated beside Mrinal Sen, sharing a laugh with wife Bijoya, on the streets in Singapore and painting by candlelight at home.

The arrangement isn?t spectacular, there are grammatical and spelling errors in the captions. But there is no denying the significance of the images, created from a treasure trove of negatives preserved by Mitra.