Literary fever peaks here with the arrival of the year’s most awaited eventthe Boi Mela (Kolkata Book Fair).
It’s the world’s largest non-trade book fair (for the general public instead of wholesalers) with approximately 1.5 million in attendance.
This year’s Boi Mela runs from January 28-February 8 — writers and bibilophiles from all corners of the country and the world have already begun descending on the city.
In addition to the book fair, Kolkata has countless havens for book lovers — some shops are part of big chains, some are tiny independent operations hidden in alleys, some fall somewhere between big and tiny.
Here’s a short list of the city’s best book shops and venues for visitors.
Earthcare Books
Earthcare Books is one of the most vibrant and warm bookstores you’ll ever come across — in Kolkata or anywhere else.
Set up by husband and wife duo Bharat and Vinita Mansatta, Earthcare emphasizes books that cover ecological issues.
One of its bestsellers is the bible on natural farming — “One Straw Revolution,” by Japanese farmer-philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka.
Earthcare Books is also a publisher. Among its stable of writers are Jeremy Seabrook, twice an Orwell Prize nominee, and Bharat Mansatta himself, who penned one of the shop’s bestsellers, “The Vision of Natural Farming.”
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Bag operates from an unassuming, shed-like building, with no signage.
He owns two letterpress machines along with boxes brimming over with type — alphabets in English, Hindi and Bengali.
Bag is one of the world’s few surviving practitioners of Gutenberg’s age-old method.
The traditional movable type printing method created by Johanness Gutenberg in 1450 inks paper with letter dies aligned in the right order. It takes Bag about two hours to set and compose 40-odd lines of type on an A4 size page.
He mostly composes menus for weddings, bills and memos, pamphlets and other small items.
A current printing job has Bag particularly excited at the moment — an assignment from an Australian customer to print a book on Gutenberg and his revolutionary printing process.
He’ll compose a page for visitors for Rs250 ($4).
Bishwanath Bag, Nepal Neogi Street, near Kumartuli Maath, Oorepaara, Kolkata, India
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Anuradha Sengupta is a freelance writer and editor based in Kolkata, India. She’s the founder-editor of Jalebi Ink, an award-winning media collective for children, and a columnist for New York-based Karta, an urban mapping project.
