FE Block started the Bengali new year with a pledge to read more books. The block’s community hall hosted a book fair from April 13 to 15. Organised jointly by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild and the block’s residents’ association, the mini fair had 10 publishers selling books in Hindi, Bengali, English and in a variety of genres —classics to detective fiction, biography to bestsellers — at a 10 per cent discount. Books written by residents of the block were also on display. It attracted a sizeable crowd from adjacent blocks as well.
A special guest at the inauguration was author Pracheta Gupta. “I refuse to believe that people are reading less books. Had that been the case, there wouldn’t have been authors in Calcutta earning as much as Rs 2 lakh in royalties per month,” he said.
Residents Kumkum Samaddar, Asim Sanyal, Tandra Goswami, Banani Mukherjee and Kanchan Mukherjee — all with a flair for writing — then took part in a discussion on the book-reading habit down the years. Author Krishnendu Mukherjee who moderated the discussion, started off asking about books which influenced one the most. “I would name Thakurmar Jhuli,” he said. “It took me on a flight of fancy that no other book ever did.” That led others to name works of Rabindranath Tagore, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay and Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay, while some chose to name childhood favourites like Tuntunir Boi and Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne by Upendrakishore Roy Chowdhury.
Sanyal spoke of the commercial opportunities that awaited successful authors. J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, is richer than Queen Elizabeth, he said. Goswami and Samaddar read out their own work. And when Mukherjee expressed the fear that Bengali language itself was under threat as the young generation does not read Bengali books any more, many in the audience protested, refusing to take a despondent view.
“This is the fourth year that we are organising this fair. We thought of this to promote the book-reading habit,” said secretary Gautam Roy.
The residents made the most of the three-day affair. Dibyendu Hota was a regular visitor, browsing books as well as attending the cultural programmes that took place every evening. “The guild’s annual Book Fair is big and crowded so this fair is a blessing for us. I bought a number of books for myself and my two teenaged granddaughters,” he said. The block’s library too procured books to add to its racks. Ashmita Basak, who was part of the children’s group dance on Nava Varsha evening, was also eager to take her pick once her performance got over. The dance, directed by Subhra Roy Chowdhury, was a mash-up of different styles, classical and semi-classical.
