Even as stalls are coming up for the International Kolkata Book Fair at the Central Park fairgrounds, another book fair is under way till Sunday at New Town City Square.
Rabindrasangeet researcher and Purbachal resident Purnendu Bikash Sarkar was felicitated at the opening of the 10th edition of the fair, which was inaugurated on December 28 by urban development and municipal affairs minister and mayor Firhad Hakim and other guests. “The way New Town is making strides soon the MLA here will become more important than the mayor of Calcutta,” he joked. He also pointed out that book fairs were taking place in districts across the state, increasing reading habit among the youth.
Three representatives of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild were present on stage. “We are part of the book fair movement. So we are happy every time there is a book fair anywhere,” smiled president Tridib Chatterjee, who runs Patra Bharati. Sudhangshu Sekhar Dey of Dey’s Publishing, the guild general secretary, urged listeners to revive the practice of gifting books on various occasions.
Physical vs digital
Purnendu Bikash Sarkar, this year’s Ananda Purashkar recipient who has researched extensively on Tagore’s songs for two decades and presented his findings in print (Gitabitan Tathyabhandar) as well as plug-and-play format (Gitabitan Archive), was felicitated. “Book fairs are happening everywhere in large numbers and books are selling more in rural areas than in cities. But we have to remember that digital media is coming up. If physical books have to survive, we have to ensure they contain a flavour of the digital too and provide that experience. Another challenge coming up is generative AI. Though artificial intelligence will never match up to human merit, the way science is progressing, writers and publishers will have to be alive to developments in the field,” Sarkar said, adding that he would announce a new technology soon to consume music independently of YouTube.
The Newtown Book Fair being inaugurated at City Square on December 28. Sudeshna Banerjee
Paschim Banga Kabita Akademi chairman Subodh Sarkar lauded the organisers for felicitating an able researcher like Sarkar. “He has made such use of technology that you can scan a bar code to track a song,” he said of Sarkar’s hi-tech book Rabindraganer Antaraley,” he said.
The fair has 90 stalls, including HarperCollins, Oxford Bookstore etc. “The theme is Sukumar Roy’s Abol Tabol, to commemorate its centenary. The stage has been named after Michael Madhusudan Dutt, as this is the poet’s bicentenary. A second stage bears poet and translator Nirendranath Chakraborty’s name as he turns 100 this year,” said fair committee president Urmila Sen.
The opening song at the ceremony was a medley of rhymes from Abol Tabol.
A three-day poetry festival will start on Friday under the aegis of the book fair, which will continue till Sunday. Poet Sharmila Ray, publisher of the little magazine Pratibimba Prasanta Maji, who stepped down recently as the administrator of Swapnobhor, and researcher Anup Matilal, who retired a year ago as curator of Rabindra Tirtha, will be felicitated in course of the opening of the eighth edition of the poetry festival.
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