Books and the city Almost synonymous with its book culture, Calcutta’s life of imagination and intellect is nurtured by itinerant book-vendors, roadside book stalls and old book shops run by families through generations. Kolkata: Book City (edited by Sria Chatterjee and Jennie Renton), an anthology of essays by eminent authors and scholars, chronicles diverse aspects of the city’s book life. Its book world brings into interface people from many social strata, in a community which reflects the complex layers of life in the city. Abhijit Gupta talks about preserving Calcutta’s printing heritage while Swapan Chakravorty discusses Bengal’s cornucopia of languages. Among other essays, Sukanta Chaudhuri discusses ‘street books’ and the bot-tala tradition. Amit Chaudhuri writes about his own reading and the city in terms of numinous fragments. Also to be found are profiles and personal appreciations of the city’s bookshops and publishing houses. With each contributor adding an enlivening personal perspective, what results is an engrossing accumulation of experience. The many faces of and behind the book are also represented through Vinayak Das Gupta’s evocative photographs of browsers and booksellers, printing presses and bookbinders. This evening, Oxford Bookstore, in association with British Council, hosts its launch and a panel discussion on Kolkata as a city of books to be participated by Nabarun Bhattacharya, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Mandira Sen and Hari Vasudevan. Event: Launch of Kolkata: Book City, along with a panel discussion When: Today at 6.30 pm Where: Oxford Bookstore, Park Street

art

Till February 3 at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor, Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street; 12 noon - 7 pm: Paintings by Kazi Ghiyasuddin. February 3 - 8 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 4th floor AC Gallery; 4 pm - 8 pm: The fifth solo exhibition of watercolours by Ekta Singha. Inauguration today at 6 pm by Samir Aich. Till February 7 at G.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue, 1st floor; 2 pm - 7 pm: Solo art exhibition of Amitava Sen. Till February 8 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: Chitrakoot presents an exhibition of portraits. Till February 8 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue, #2283 3176; 2 pm - 7 pm: Impressions Chandannagar, a group show based on a drawing workshop held at Chandannagar Book Fair. Participating artists: Alok Bhattacharya, Anita Roychowdhury, Animesh Nandi, Chanchal Mukherjee, Dewasish Das, Dipankar Chanda, Partha Bhattacharya, Prakash Karmakar, Sekhar Kar, Shyamali Bhattacharya, Swapnesh Chowdhury, Sanjeev Narayan Dutta, Sudip Chanda, Sudipta Tewari, Sajal Kanti Mitra and Ranjan Mukherjee. Till February 10 at Jamini Roy Hall, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 1 pm - 7 pm: Gandhara Art Gallery presents Mirror Image — an exhibition of recent works by Abir Karmakar, Chhatrapati Dutta, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Debraj Goswami, Debanjan Roy, Farad Hussain, Sanjeet Chowdhury, Kazi Nasir, Nantu Behari Das, Prasenjit Sengupta, Sekhar Baran Karmakar, Sovan Kumar, T.V. Santosh and Saikat Surai. Till February 10 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2460 4245/2461 3145; 10 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Khurshid Alam Saleem. Curated by Radhika Datta. Till February 14 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia presents a group show, Analytical Engine. Curated by Heidi Fichtner. Till February 15 at Academy of Fine Arts; 12 noon - 8 pm: The 73rd Annual All India Fine Arts Exhibition 2008-09. Till February 28 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #65508418; 10.30 am - 7.30 pm: The Masters of Imagination — an exhibition of the works by Kartick Pyne, Atin Basak, Tapas Sardar, Prokash Karmakar, Suhas Roy, Sanatan Dinda, Sukanta Das, Bratin Khan, Aditya Basak, Sibsaday, Subroto Das and others.

TALK

February 3 at the AC Hall of Calcutta Book Fair; 4 pm: Scottish poet Mandy Haggith to speak on Paper Trail — Tracing the history and manufacturing of paper. February 3 at the department of library and information science, Jadavpur University; 4 pm: Martyn Wade, director, National Library, Scotland, will speak on The role of libraries in accessing knowledge and information in the future. February 3 at the Shivananda Hall of Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park; 6 pm: T.S. Rukmani will speak on Tension between Violence and Non-Violence in Hindu Thought. February 3 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 6.25 pm: Discourse on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi by Dr Bhupendra Nath Sil. February 3 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Atmabodhananda will discuss in Bengali Sri Sri Mayer Katha.

READING

February 3 at the AC Hall of Calcutta Book Fair; 5 pm: Readings from Torn Apart by Derek Flory. Torn Apart is a heart-rending, inspirational account of how the Le Fleur sisters lived separate lives, in Scotland and India, for more than 65 years before an emotional reunion brought them together in October 2007. To be chaired by Roy Cross, director, British Council, Scotland.

DRAMA

February 3 at Academy of Fine Arts & February 8 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sayak presents its latest production, Dournama. Drama: Indrasis Lahiri. Direction: Meghnad Bhattacharya. February 5 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Ajantrik presents Pratham Paath, written and directed by Ramaprosad Banik. February 8 at Academy of Fine Arts, 3 pm: Ajnatobass — Nandikar’s latest production, directed by Sumanta Gangopadhyay. Story: Sukanta Gangopadhyay. The cast includes Sohini Sengupta, Sumana Mukherjee, Swatilekha Sengupta, Sumanta Gangopadhyay, Swajan Srijan Mukherjee and Rudraprasad Sengupta. Directorial adviser: Rudraprasad Sengupta.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till February 8 at Calcutta Book Fair, Srishti Sandhan (Stall 336); 12 noon - 8 pm: An exhibition of photographs on Hampi by Atanu Paul.

PERFORMING ARTS

February 7 at Uttam Mancha; 11.30 am onwards: Swarganga presents its 6th annual classical music event, Shraddhanjali, a tribute to Pandit Kishen Maharaj and Pandit Mahadev Prasad Mishra. Featuring group vocal/semi-classical by Sanjana, Esha, Shanta and Chandana; thumri by Paromita Bhattacharya; vocal by Pandit Madhup Mudgal; tabla (solo) by Subhankar Banerjee; flute by Sudip Chatterjee; Kathak by Alokeparna Guha; vocal by Nandini Chakraborty; Benaras trio: Vidushi Purnima Chaudhuri (vocal), Pandit Kumar Bose (tabla) and Pandit Ramesh Mishra (sarangi); sarod by Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta; and vocal Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty.

EXHIBITION

Till February 7 at Finesse Gallery, 11/1B New Road, Alipore; 11 am - 7 pm: The Queen of Textiles - Silk sensuous in any form. Tussar sarees and dupattas woven and printed from the looms of Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Maheshwar and Bihar. Till February 5 at Soumya’s Creation, 57/9 Ballygunge Circular Road; 10.30 am - 7 pm: Durries, Durries & More Durries — a wide range of wool and cotton durries in a plethora of designs. Till February 15 (except February 9 ) at Asutosh Birth Centenary Hall; 11 am - 5 pm: An exhibition on Indian Musical Instruments through the Ages to mark the 195th anniversary of Indian Museum. Till February 17 at Weavers Studio, 5/1 Anil Moitra Road, Ballygunge Place, #2440 8926; 10 am - 6 pm: An exhibition of Indigo on textile. February 5 - 7 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 12 noon - 8 pm: A Conference of Birds — an exhibition of woven textile art by Shambhavi. Inauguration on February 5 at 6 pm.

LITERATURE

February 3 at Calcutta Book Fair, German Pavilion; 6 pm: Leselust — a literary evening offering German language students and lovers of German literature a window to Daniel Kehlmann: Measuring the World. Subroto Saha, German language teacher at MMB Calcutta, talks about the life and work of the author. Selected portions will be read in original German and in English, to be followed by an open discussion session. Moderator: Dr Reimar Volker.

ART WORKSHOP

February 3 & 4 at Ideal School for the Deaf, CF-217 Sector I, Salt Lake, #2321 7971; 11 am - 4 pm: An art workshop by the students of Ideal School for the Deaf. Also, an art competition tomorrow between 2 pm and 4 pm.

ART CAMP

February 3 - 12 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Regional Centre, 361 Keyatala Lane: Artist in Residence & regional Bronze Casting Camp. Inauguration today at 5.30 pm by Niranjan Pradhan.

FILM SHOW

February 3 at Chitrabani auditorium; 5.45 pm: Screening of Ekla Chalo Re, directed by Prasenjit Ghosh and Biswajit Ghosh.

QUIZ

February 6 at the HL Roy Building auditorium, Jadavpur University; 11 am: Know Your Romantics, an inter-college literature quiz organised by Centre for Studies in Romantic Literature. Two-member teams are requested to register at 98300-13183 by tomorrow.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph,6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244