Kolkata, the City of Joy has always been a cultural hub and a bibliophile's haven, with independent and specialty bookstores, secondhand book stalls, as well as annual lit fests. The largest and most popular is the International Kolkata Book Fair organised by the Publishers and Booksellers' Guild. The 47th edition of the fair just wrapped up. Held from January 18 to 31, it was the largest ever, with more than 1,000 stalls. Here's a glimpse of the immense variety of stalls, workshops, talks, and performances that took place over two weeks.
This year, the theme country was the UK. It also marked the 75th anniversary of the British Council's presence in India with a showcase of UK's work in literature, arts, and science. The UK Pavilion offered talks and discussions with prominent academics and celebrated authors from the UK, exciting exhibitions, and a variety of activities. Of particular note was the talk by Michael Wilson, Professor of Drama and Head of Creative Arts at Loughborough University. And the talk by Nandini Das about her British Academy Book Prize-winning book, Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire.
Aside from the United Kingdom, the countries who participated this year included the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Pavilion, which is always a draw, hosted around 50 publishers.
This year had the most number of stalls. And the reaction was overwhelming, with over 3 lakh people attending the event on its inaugural Sunday. According to the organisers, purchases in the first four days were 20 per cent higher than the previous year. An interactive map guided visitors around the book fair's more than 1,000 stalls.
The book fair is known as a place where you can find rare editions and out-of-print books. Among the unique offerings that stood out this year was the first edition of the English version of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel-winning 'Gitanjali', a collection of poems. This rare gem was displayed by Sabujpatra Publications.
The annual book fair also hosts the parallel Kolkata Literature Festival, probably the only lit fest that is held within a large book fair. It has hosted many well-known international and Indian writers including Man Booker shortlisted Graeme Macrae Burnet, acclaimed crime fiction writer Val Mc Dermid, The Lion author Saroo Brierly, Maya Jasanoff of The Dawn Watch, Nobel Memorial prize winner Amartya Sen, Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Giles Abbot, Welsh author, artist, and singer Siôn Tomos Owen, and many others.
This year, the three-day lit fest saw 18 sessions covering a wide range of topics, from the art of translation to poetry readings. The sessions with writers included those about Bengali literary stalwarts such as Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sankar, Sanjib Chattopadhyay, and Bani Basu.
Each day also featured cultural events such as live music sessions and dance performances, including classical dance by Dona Ganguly's troupe Diksha Manjari. Every day, folk performers, including Baul singers, performed on makeshift stages set up across the grounds.