Sense and Sensibility

Much before literature festivals (or lit fests as they’re called) came to command the world of the written word or become the mecca for authors, writers, bibliophiles, readers and publishers and anybody who wanted or had anything to do with the written word, there were the book fairs. The New Delhi World Book Fair up in the centre. The Chennai and Hyderabad Book Fairs down south. The Pune and Mumbai Book Fairs in the west. And of course, the last word in book fairs in the east, that stayed with none other than the Kolkata - sorry, the International Kolkata Book Fair.

If lit fests are well organised, well-curated and carefully managed events, involving tons of sponsors, dozens of noteworthy speakers, book launches, galas and after parties topped with networking, a book fair is almost like its country cousin - humbler, simpler and easily accessible by all.

The Kolkata Book Fair always managed to outshine the fairs held in other, more prosperous parts of the country and live up to its colloquial name of being a mela. A ‘boi-mela’ to be precise. Generally, a week or 10-day-long affair, one marked out the dates of the ‘boi-mela’ just like one would of Durga Puja. Just the way, faith isn’t a pre-condition to make the most of the spirit of the Pujas, you didn’t necessarily have to be a committed bibliophile to visit the Book Fair with friends or cousins. And just the way, even hardwired atheists are moved by the sheer art, culture and tradition of Durga Puja, people who have nothing to do with books per se, are left fascinated by the treasure island that the Kolkata Book Fair is. Both have their devotees and subsequent converts.

With row after row of makeshift stalls stacked with thousands, nay lakhs of titles, covering almost every subject man has ever had a thought on, a book fair thus transforms an otherwise ordinary space into a fertile playground of intellectual and creative thought of every type and dimension. From the banal to the bizarre. From the eclectic to the eccentric.

But who needs a bookfair in the days of online deliveries, when the click of a button not only gets the book to your doorstep, but also does so at a discount? Does it make any sense to queue up to merely enter the precincts of a bustling bookfair and an even busier store?

But therein is the reading between the lines! You don’t visit the book fair merely for the purchase of a title. You do so for the love of books. For the love of that energy that an atmosphere of books, bookworms and booklovers create around them - ‘jholawallas’ milling around with academics and intellectuals and with minds hungry and curious and oddly polemical. You visit it to bump into that long-lost college mate or colleague. You visit it to lay your hands on a rare, serendipitous find. To laugh at how the candyfloss maker still has a following though more on ‘Instagram’ than on the ground and how his fare is now more liked than licked. And you visit it with today’s young to induct and sensitise them to this odd world of discoveries that aided you in navigating thoughts and ideas that stirred and expanded your own horizons and eventually helped you charter the course to your own voice.

Whether it makes any sense or not, I will still be making my annual pilgrimage to the Kolkata ‘boi-mela’ as usual. Which book fair will you visit?

Supriya Newar is a Kolkata-based writer, poet, music aficionado and communications consultant. She may be reached at [email protected], Instagram: @supriyanewar, Facebook: supriya.newar and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/supriya-newar