Boi Mela boost to literary legacy

the khardah boi mela is the latest effort of the residents of this area to preserve the rich cultural tradition of the place. held between december 21 and 25, it has attracted a huge crowd. the total number of visitors last year was 75,000. this is the second year of the fair. manas chakraborty, a former student of ramakrishna mission and one of the enthusiasts behind the book fair, says, new barrackpore, panihati, bidhannagar, lake town , nimta, agarpara, baranagar all had book fairs, but khardahh in spite of its rich cultural heritage did not have one.it was a dream come true for many of us last year. there were 68 stalls, an improvement from last year's 35. but what stood out was the participation of little magazines and publishers from khardah. there are a total of 11 little magazines coming out from khardah. significant among them are samyo, jagaru, roddur and nagar o panta patrika. some of them have completed 42 years in circulation. swapan saha, a member of the book fair committee, emphasises unlike most big budget affairs in khardah, our total budget is around rs 1.5 lakh. we get rs 40,000 from the payments for the stalls, rs 22,000 from out membership fees and last year we got rs 75,000 from the one-rupee entry coupons. the cultural heritage of khardah dates back to the days of nityananda prabhu, an associate of chaitanya mahaprabhu. khardah was one of the five places where brahmin scholars had settled. the others were nabadwip, phulia, shantipur and kumarhatta. khardah became a fertile land for nityananda prabhu to propagate his message. the vaishnav influence is evident in the celebration of rash mela, the maghi poornima mela and the dol utsab. in a way, khardah can be called the land of melas. the advent of the east india company and the enthusiasm of prankrishna biswas, zamindar of a part of the rhara area of khardah, gave birth to the first school here. the next phase of cultural evolution took place after sipahi bidroho under the stewardship of rajkrishna bandyopadhyay and mohitmohan biswas. the former brought out the first magazines from khardah — bigyanbikash and hiotomihir.