A slice of Kolkata comes to Durga Puja pandals with ‘boi mela’ for book lovers

Pune: Books from West Bengal are adding a touch of Kolkata to the Durga Puja pandals in the city. Mandals like Kali Bari, Nandanik Sanstha and Aagomoni Prabasi Sangha have set up book fairs at pandals with classics and contemporary books. “We sort and organise book fairs with Bengali bestsellers of various publishers. We have novels, anthologies and contemporary books across genres. Bengali books give off a whiff of College Street of Kolkata. This year, we have over 500 titles, including classics of Nazrul Islam and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and also contemporaries like Prachit Gupta and Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, whose books sell like hot cakes,” Ranjan Kumar Maity, secretary of Bengali Book Promotional Services and organiser of the book fair at Nandanik Sanstha Mandal and Agomoni Prabasi Sangha. English translations of the books are also available and are always in huge demand. “We organise book fairs at several mandals across the country. We have been visiting Kali Bari since 2005 and our stall draws huge crowds each year,” Shubhashish Nairi, a sales executive of Kolkata Publisher and Bookseller Guild, said. He said all types of bestselling books from different publishers ranging from novels, anthologies, storybooks and alphabet books for children are available at the fair.Arindam Ghorai, chairman of the Agomoni Prabasi Sangha, said Bengalis have always been book lovers. “Bengali customers tend to look for hardcovers, adventure and detective novels and anthologies. The demand is similar for Bengali books and translations. We have been organising book fairs in our pandals for the past six years and the turnout follows a similar demographic trend. The crowd mostly consists of middle-aged people. It is heart warming to see a huge turnout despite the advent of modern technology. This encourages us to organise the book fair and we hope to organise the fair next year as well.”Anup Dutta, general secretary of the Kali Bari Mandal located in Khadki, said, “Bengali community is known for producing literary intellectuals who have written several books. Pune has many book lovers and it is heartwarming to see the crowds and demand for Bengali books each year. We put up book stalls each year in Basanti and Durga Puja.”Gautam Banerjee, president of Nandanik Sanstha, Koregaon Park, said, “I have been the president of the mandal for the last three years. Our pandal at Rohi Villa Palace has several food stalls, stalls with household items, jewellery and book stalls. This stall represents 40 publishers from Kolkata. The book stalls have novels, magazines and periodicals that the sellers have brought from Kolkata. The stall was set up on panchami(October 19), and will be displayed till Navami (October 23).”