KJ
Encounters
Boi
Mela: Kolkata's Festival of the Written Word
Maura Basu-Hurley, KJ #63
Originally from New York State, and a former resident of both Kyoto
and Nara, I now live in the capital city of West Bengal, in eastern
India. In the minds of most people, the name Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)
conjures up images of Mother Teresa, extreme poverty, slums, and air
pollution, and travelers tend to avoid this destination like the plague.
While all these problems do exist, outsiders usually don’t realize
that Kolkata is also home to the rich Bengali literary culture born
out of the writings of Rabindranath Tagore and the interplay of intellectual
Indians here who characteristically thrive on heated, extended conversations,
known in Bengali as adda.
It was out of one of these adda sessions, at the legendary Coffee House
in the College Street area of town, that the idea of the Boi Mela
(Kolkata Book Fair) evolved in 1976. Liberating books formerly languishing
in dusty back stockrooms, it introduced Kolkatans to the agreeably habit-forming
concept of browsing.
Every winter now, when the sweltering heat relents and it is pleasant
to be outdoors, Kolkatans start checking their newspapers for the official
dates of Boi Mela. It is definitely the highlight of the winter mela
(fair) season, taking over a huge section of the Maidan, Kolkata's largest
urban green space, almost overnight in late January. Held for just twelve
days, Boi Mela is not unlike cherry blossom season in Japan. It climaxes
and disappears before you know it.
Organized annually by the Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Guild,
this all-age attraction, which draws a total of 14 million book fans,
can only be described as colossal. Over 600 international and national
publishers are set up in a maze of temporary stalls and no less than
200 “little magazine” presses take part — the fair
is so vast that you can simply never see everything. It opens at noon
every day, and by five p.m., the whole area is a frenzy of book worshippers.
Young artists set up on mats selling hand-painted greeting cards, surrounded
by their singer-songwriter friends, while families picnic atop scraps
of newspapers. The truly diverse crowd is as fascinating as any of the
available books.Every time you step into a new stall, it seems to exude
a completely unique ambience, even if publications often overlap. The
event, along with the flurry of media and hype surrounding it, is something
like an intellectual county fair. The Boi Mela is undoubtedly a major
source of Bengali civic pride.
The majority of stalls are Bengali publishers introducing new fiction,
non-fiction and poetry, the biggest name being Ananda Publishers. As
the sun sets and more sweet, milky tea is poured, stalls host lectures
and panel discussions to facilitate author/reader interaction. Topics
might include: Can Indian scientists ever be awarded a Nobel Prize again?
How can Hindu-Muslim unity be achieved? Is literature really a part
of life?
Included among the Bengali stalls are what are tagged “little
magazines,” along the lines of the zine culture that has developed
elsewhere. This area includes self-published magazines containing a
lot of anti-establishment writing, environmental/labour documentation,
and the poetry and essays of idealistic voices of this region.
The English section is quite extensive, and among a number of small
presses, includes well-known publishers like Oxford and Cambridge, and
the Indian company, Rupa. Also present are a number of small presses
from around India that publish in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati or Oriya
languages, as well as The Asiatic Society (which publishes historical
reference books), several university presses, and The Yoga Society,
ISKON, and other swami-based publications that add their own bit of
holistic zeal to the event. You’ll also find books ranging from
computers, science, health, drawing, interior design, traditional alpana
and mehendi designs, and comics, right down to reading primers and colouring
books for kiddies. Each year, a different country is chosen to be the
focus of the Fair. Last year Kolkatans browsed through a full collection
of French titles under the gaze of an array of portraits of French writers
— in a makeshift Louvre. Spain is featured this year, with a Spanish
Film Festival launching the event and contemporary Spanish authors as
guests. Noted visitors in previous years have included Fidel Castro
and Gunter Grass.
Faced by thousands of titles, many people plan their book splurge carefully,
visiting more than once to make their yearly book purchases on discount
during this regional "festival of words!" Last year, I sighted
a stall giving out bank loans, allowing avid readers to buy now and
pay back later. This practice gives some insight into where Bengali
priorities lie when it comes to culture. For quicker cash-on-the-spot,
an ATM was installed this year.
With the environmental damage caused by these huge fairs, many have
had to be relocated in the past years. And the threat that this year’s
will be the last Boi Mela on the Maidan surfaced again. But there must
be an eco-friendly way for Kolkata to save both the green space and
the Boi Mela. It looks like efforts are being made, as plastics were
banned from the fair grounds this year, and I noticed Greenpeace canvassers
out for the first time.
Encouraging young people in Kolkata to revere books, students are given
free admission if they come with their teacher and in uniform between
12 and 4 each day. It's no coincidence that worship of Saraswati, the
goddess of learning and the arts [see “Metamorphosing Goddess,”
KJ #62], is celebrated in Kolkata either during the Fair or soon after,
on the fifth day of the new moon. Students of mine at an alternative
learning center in a slum area of south Kolkata organized their own
puja for Saraswati, and asked to go to Boi Mela as an outing
in the afternoon the same day. In my middle-class neighborhood a few
years ago, I saw a need for a brightly colored, orderly library/activity
space for children, and opened up one room of our flat as a community
library, since I already had so many children’s books and books
of my own to share.
Arnab, a teenage boy who visits our library, asked if he could tag along
to the Boi Mela this year since his sister would be studying for her
Board Exams and both his parents are bed-ridden. While we adults spent
time at some of the serious, lefty stalls like Earthcare Books, Arnab
combed the more kid-centric stalls and found exactly what he was looking
for — some sought-after comic book titles, two sci-fi story compilations,
and an Agatha Christie mystery.
He came back with a grin after each purchase — from the Rs. 10
his parents allow him per day for transportation and lunch, he'd been
putting away rupee by rupee while skipping meals, or walking home instead
of using a bus or auto rickshaw. In the three to four months before
the Book Fair he always manages to save at least Rs. 250 (US$5) for
his book purchases, and his parents chipped in too. It is refreshing
to have Boi Mela virtually in our back yard, celebrating freedom of
expression, culture and literacy rather than the usual shows of commodities
and brand names.
Our purchases support our small endeavor too. Searching out bargains
and requests from library users, my kids and I always spend a long time
at National Book Trust and Children’s Book Trust, two government-subsidized
publishers, which sell a huge array of children’s books in both
Bengali and English (at incredibly reasonable prices like Rs. 10 a book).
Our family and friends enjoy the treasures we find at Boi Mela long
after the stalls are disassembled and the Maidan is breathing again.
Maura
Hurley lives in Kolkata and runs Mustard Seeds, a small reading room
for neighborhood children and family project to support traditional
artisans and social welfare and fair trade organizations http://www.geocities.com/cal_mustard/
We welcome your support!
http://dalbhat.blogspot.com
http://tik-tiki.blogspot.com
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