Shaktipada Rajguru and Arup Roy light the inaugural lamp at Domjur Boi Mela and (right) visitors at the book stalls. Pictures by Gopal Senapati

The eighth edition of Domjur Boi Mela will have guest performers coming from Calcutta and Mumbai to pull crowds. As has been the trend for the past few years, this year’s fair will not be just about books, but a lot more. The mela was opened to public after its inauguration on December 16 by writer Shaktipada Rajguru and the minister for agriculture marketing, Arup Roy. Swami Krishnanathananda of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, unveiled a statue of Swami Vivekananda at the fair grounds.

The fair will continue till December 25 with music, dance and theatre lined up for each evening. For the bibliophiles in Howrah, there are 70 publishers participating in this year’s fair and most of them are from Calcutta. Among them are Dey’s Publishing, Deb Sahitya Kutir, Nirmal Book Agency, Chitralekha and others. Smaller publishing houses from Howrah also found place at the mela. From educational books to story books, drawing books, to religious texts, books of all genres were available at the fair.

Since this year’s theme is Swami Vivekananda, an exhibition based on the monk’s life and teachings has been put up near the entrance of the fair. Many visitors came to the exhibition. Others listened to the speakers or some local artiste performing on stage. The winter evenings are well spent with steaming cups of tea and coffee doing the rounds. Other fast food is available at the food tent in one corner of the mela ground. The biggest crowd, however, is around the jhalmuri and phuchka sellers.

Tanima Sen and Monu Mukherjee’s comic performance at the fair

Apart from the food, there was jatra that drew crowds. People watched Tarama Opera’s Parampurush Sri Sri Ramkrishna on the first night and Muktamanjari Opera’s Nawab Darbare Sadhak Ramprasad staged on December 17. Monu Mukherjee and Tanima Sen’s comic acts on December 18 kept the audience in good spirits. On December 20, Alokananda Roy’s troupe performed Valmiki Pratibha, starring Nigel Akkara. Chitrangada, the play by women inmates of the CID Anti-Human Trafficking unit, was staged on the same day.

Singer Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta will be the guest performer on December 21 and an enthralling evening of classical music will follow on December 22 with artiste Tanmoy Bose’s tabla recital. Indrani Dutta will be coming with her dance troupe, Sristi, to perform on December 23. Cactus will rock the Christmas Eve. This year’s special attraction is Anuradha Paudwal who will sing on December 25.

Dalia Mukherjee