Kolkata Book Fair 2012

A few days back, it was the last day of Kolkata Book Fair 2012, probably the most celebrated cultural event of the cultural capital of India.
Well, no one can question the celebration part, of course. Two million people sweating on a February evening in an open fair ground will testify for that. However, the age old questions linger as well.
Administrative flaws, lack of maps, too much dust and now there are some new complaints like the quality of the crowd, a lot less people around who are really interested in books and so on.
Let’s be over with these first. Well, the age old questions have become age old in the first place since they have no answers. So, no point attempting to answer them. But yes, there are some thoughts on the new ones. Indeed, I felt that, the number of people of in the book stalls was markedly less from the number outside, on the roads and in the food court. No wait. Its even more worrying than that. The queue in front of the big publishers like Ananda, Dey’s, Mitra O Ghosh, Penguin, Starmark, etc. was as long as expected. It was the smaller publishers who were just managing to meet ends. But we shall come to that later.



Before I proceed any further, I feel I should say something here. I do not feel that everyone coming to the book fair should check out books, or be book lovers for that matter. People can of course come there just for watching people and enjoy Benfish. But well, the event is called ‘Book’ fair, right? So, the number of such people should at least be at par with the book lovers. But, now it seems that these people have increased so much in numbers that the number of book lovers are coming down in fear of the crowd!

I feel removing the entry fee was a mistake to blame here. First of all, it was a huge revenue source. And secondly, I feel it discouraged a lot of casual onlookers to just go in and have a look. You might not agree with me, but I feel that only people who are really interested to go into the book fair should be encouraged. The interest itself might not be books. It might be people, might be paintings, might be momartro or might be Benfish. But it should be strong enough to induce them to stand in the queue in front of the counter and spend 5 rupees. Of course, there are a lot of people in a poor city like ourselves who cannot afford to pay 5 rupees. So, Kiosks can be put up near the more backward areas of the city, where free tickets are given out, one per person. And I don’t think people who are not interested about the book fair or able to afford 5 rupees would go there either. But well, that’s just my thought. I’m sure you would have a lot of arguments against it and of course, such a decision needs some time before revision.
Nevertheless, I felt that if you are true book lover, its still possible to surf books in quiet and peace. Sacrifice your siesta, and go to the book fair at least a couple of hours before 5 P.M., or go on weekdays, taking a day off from work. If you love books, you need to make some arrangements for them.
Anyways, I felt the administrative difficulties are the less worrying ones in the book fair. If not remedied, there are ways to avoid them.

But I had much, much more serious concerns regarding the…..source.



As I was mentioning earlier, the bigger publishers had their crowds, if not business, unaltered. But, think of something. Do you need to wait for the book fair to get hold of the bigger publishers? There are three dedicated outlets of Ananda publishers, two dedicated outlets of Starmark, two outlets of Dey’s in prime locations of the city. Do you think it is essential to go to the book fair to surf their books? Still, they shall be the biggest crowd pullers, I agree. But I have always believed the book fair is much more about the smaller publishers, the parallel works done in plays coming out from Taalpata, some interesting travelogues or memoirs from Gangchil, some old battered second hand edition of an out of print gold mine from Subarnarekha, Little magazines, the new experiments on Bengali poems from Kobita Pakkhik - these are the essence of the book fair.
You don’t get the chance to experience these other than the book fair, at least not on a large scale. But these stalls were miserably empty. Publishers like Protibhash, Bijolpo, Karigor hardly had any people in their stalls. I asked them how their business was that year and they said that the business during the book fair has gone down drastically during the last two years. Even some of their regular customers called and asked for their regular address since they want to avoid the crowd. I guess this way, soon enough, we shall have four huge book stores in book fair and the rest taken up by TV channels, Income Tax, Anchor hunt, Public Relations and of course………….a huge food court, possibly with restaurants.

The story does not end here.

The other alarming aspect was the quality of the new releases. On the last day, I walked through the small bookstalls for 4 hours and could find a total of about 10 books that could grip my attention for more than 2 minutes. It might very well be a problem with my attention, but all I could find was newer collections of old children’s mystery stories, ghost stories, very superficial biographies of great Indians and of course………… Tagore.
THAT was another irritating feature, probably the most. Tagore from right, from left, from top, his pictures, his rough works, his letters……..Stuff that has been published thousands of times, or the same stuff in a new wrapper with a little sentiment.
Ok, that was wrong. There were indeed some worthwhile works probably. But it was like looking for a needle in haystack. There seems to be no other subject!!! I mean, the great man left us about seventy years ago and ever since, a whole race has been analysing and re-analysing his life and works continuously. Now, there is some limit!!! Right now, if someone gets hold of a piece of paper where he asked the tailor to deliver his clothes, its being published as his unpublished letter! I believe he deserves to be left alone from that.

Sadly, I saw few exceptions to this in the Bengali literature industry. I didn’t browse English books much in the book fair as I get ample amount of them in Starmark, OUP and Flipkart. But, with the Bengali books, it was the same story everywhere.
Its surprising, really. I see quite a few authors writing very well in the magazines I subscribe to. If that is the case, then why are they not trying to publish their books?
Trouble is, they are. But, everyone is targeting the bigshots, like Ananda, or at least Dey’s.
And that is probably the most dangerous side of the Bengali literature industry which I got to witness in this book fair. The monopolisation of literature.



You are not an author anymore in Bengal, unless Ananda publishers say so.

It sends a chill down the spine. Even if, tomorrow, all non book lovers stop going to the book fair and its only book lovers who are inside the fair, what will they read? Only what a particular private enterprise, rather a particular entrepreneur considers worth publishing?
Oh, sorry. I forgot the text books. They are making good business too. Stalls like Arabindo pathagar, Cchaya prokashoni, who specializes in text books have done fabulous business this year. But where does that put us?

We buy and browse the same books in book fair, which we can do all over the year. What is the use of the book fair then?
The nostalgia of Maidan, the ease of reaching Science city, the concern over the quality of crowd – all these are no doubt very grave issues and definitely commands immediate attention.
But the fact that depressed me most was that the whole metropolis is so busy to ensure that they can enjoy the book fair, have not been concerned about the health of the book fair itself.

I hoped better from the cultural capital of the biggest democracy in the world.