Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Book FAIR 2009

Kolkata Book Fair 2009, organized by the Publishers & Booksellers Guild, reflects the irresistible passion of the city Kolkata for books once again. And this is AMAZING! Book! The OLD HARDPAPER BOOKS DRAGGED millions of book lovers towards 'Milan Mela', the venue, during January 28 till February 8, 2009.

One of the entry gates: 

Doubts loomed large in the air! A new venue! Will it be a success? 'Maidan' is no more available because of a Court order! The present venue - 'Milan Mela' has barely 609840 sq.ft. area! Also it is a rather difficult place for transportation!  
Guild was pro-active. They published a 'Theme Song' - Oi dakchhe boi’ - (The Book is calling) composed by Bickram Ghosh.
And Book lovers' long queue put an end to every debate! The same passion! The same spirit! 
 
FOCAL THEME 2009: SCOTLAND 

A long queue outside USA, the Honoured Country of International Kolkata Book Fair 2009! Mammoth cut out of Barack Obama, Hon'ble US President. 

A stall from Germany. INTERNATIONAL COMPLEX also includes representation from Britain, France, The African Union, Japan, Spain, Italy, European Union, Sweden, Romania
14 Latin American Countries, Vietnam, and Cuba. Beyond doubt - it is now an international event!

Little Magazine, a cultural heritage of Bengali literature, has always been one of the top point of interests! A table space for each publisher! 

The stall from Bangladesh:

ANANDA Publishers and few others. A stall, presumably Viswabharati, offering salutation to Rabindranath Tagore! Point to note: Book fair is not best known for its discounts! Book Shops at College Street always offer a cheaper rate! But who cares? Purchasing books at this venue has its own unique charm! And it has become an integral part of Bengal's culture.

Open air seminar. Charter of demands include returing the Book fair to its good old venue - 'Kolkata Maidan'! But whether it is at 'Maidan' or 'Milan Mela' - Kolkata is already preparing to welcome Book fair 2010.
Few more links: www.britishcouncil.org
                             www.mailbookmarking.blogspot.com
                             en.wikipedia.org
                             www.mouthshut.com                             

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Nice post. Keep it going.

Mizé said...

Hi Nilz.
Nice to see more pictures of your country. I like book fairs too but this one is a bit different from what we do here.
Great palace place!

So, you didn´t know about my other bogs!
Night Clicks was my first blog in English. I have it since November 2007.
Ok, if you don´t mind, I´ll leave you the urls of some of my other blogs (I have 7 in total):

NetSource: http://www.netfreesource.com

Portuguese Menu:
http://portuguesemenu.blogspot.com

Glass Art:
http://arteemvidro-mevaristo.blogspot.com

Good Weekend!

Siddhartha said...

Thanks.

Book fair at Kolkata is really different and sensational. People here really love to visit book fair. This has become an integral part of Kolkata social cultural over the last few decades!

Canonical Cacophony said...

thanx for the appreciation of my post on the similar reagrds. You seem to have a well researched article... loved to read it.

Siddhartha said...

It's my pleasure that you find my trivial effort useful! Thanks!

Sharmistha Guha said...

You made me nostalgic...
the smell of books, the queues, the poring over the sea of books, the art college students sitting and sketching at random, the dust, the rubbing shoulders with literaru stalwarts ...

Siddhartha said...

In this respect I consider myself fortunate. I get to visit the fair each year. Lovely ambient.