Pradosh C. Mitter aka Feluda, Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi... Your favourite sleuths are all keeping an eye on you if you walk down Bangur Avenue. The Bangur Sewage Pump House ground, beside Bangur Boy’s School, is hosting Pustak Parbon, the third edition of Bangur book fair. And the theme this year is detective stories.
The fair, which started on Thursday, has been decorated with cut-outs and flexes of iconic sleuths down the ages from both English and Bengali literature. And on Monday evening, there will be a debate on the motion “Detective stories are better than romantic stories”.
The fair, being held in collaboration with Publishers and Booksellers Guild, will have 50 book stalls and around 40 food stalls. Alongside big names in Bengali like Ananda Publishers, Dey’s Publishing and Mitra & Ghosh Publishers, there will be four stalls selling English titles. To serve the taste buds, Mitra Cafe will be present with a stall as will be Lyangcha Mahal from Saktigarh. The focus will be on traditional Bengali sweets, especially winter-special ones.
And to ensure that demonetisations does not dampen the spirit or curb the buying capacity of book lovers, the organisers have tied up with a bank to accept old Rs 500 notes, if necessary, on the spot. “This is by no means a currency exchange scheme. The condition is they have to spend 90 to 95 per cent at the fair,” says Mriganka Bhattacharya, the general secretary of Bangur Boi O Utsav Committee.
The bank will hand over a card with the amount the buyer deposits at its counter and one has to simply swipe the card at each stall to deduct the amount for which a purchase is made. The balance will be returned at the end from the bank counter. “This way the problem of shortfall of change can be avoided.”
A pavilion has been built modelled on Sister Nivedita’s residence in Bagbazar to commemorate her 150th birth anniversary.
The committee has lined up cultural programmes on every evening. On Tuesday, Sraboni Sen will perform. On December 10, the evening will be dedicated to the memory of R.D. Burman with a galaxy of singers including Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Indrani Sen, Prateek Chowdhury, Raghav and Gautam Ghosh taking stage. The final night, on December 11, will feature Akriti Kakkar, with Tollywood star Jeet making an appearance.
Will more books be sold if old notes are accepted at the fair?
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