SAURIK NAG
Bio
An artist creates a life I love
আমারও পরাণ যাহা চাই, তুমি তাই..................
Stories (3)
Filter by community
Kolkata International Book Fair
An annual international book fair held in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. This fair is more commonly known as the Kolkata Book Fair. This book fair, which was introduced in 1976, achieved recognition as an international book fair in 1984.[1] This twelve-day book fair is currently inaugurated on the last Wednesday of January. The current venue of the fair is Central Park in Bidhannagar beside of Karunamoyee bus stand depot. These facts provide important information about the 1974 National Book Trust Book Fair, the establishment of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild and the launch of the Calcutta Book Fair. The main aspects of these issues are highlighted below: National Book Trust Book Fair, 1974: * The World Book Fair in New Delhi in 1972 provided the inspiration for the Calcutta Book Fair. * The National Book Trust (NBT) organized a National Book Fair in 1974 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta. * Earlier, NBT had organized National Book Fairs in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, but was skeptical about the success of Kolkata. * Bimal Dhar of U. N. Dhar & Sons Prakashan Sanstha contacted NBT and organized a small book fair at the Academy premises in January 1974. * The good sale of Bengali books at this fair changed NBT's perception of Kolkata readers and the idea of organizing an annual book fair was started. Establishment of Publishers and Booksellers Guild: * In 1975, the Publishers and Booksellers Guild was formed by fourteen publishing and bookselling organizations of Kolkata on the initiative of Bimal Dhar. * The main purpose of establishing this organization was to organize an annual book fair in Kolkata. * Apart from Bimal Dhar, Supriyo Sarkar, Prabir Dasgupta, Atin Roy, Sreeshkumar Kunda and Sushil Mukherjee were involved in this initiative. * Initially, the organization was named 'Publishers Guild', later after the constitution was made, it was named 'Publishers and Booksellers Guild'. * Sushil Mukherjee was elected the founder-president of the guild. * In 1975, the guild held a book exhibition called 'World of Paper Backs' at the Kolkata Information Center. * Keeping in mind the All India publishers and booksellers, the formal name of the Kolkata Book Fair is 'Kalikata Pustak Mela' or 'Calcutta Book Fair'. Introduction of the Kolkata Book Fair: * The first Kolkata Book Fair was organized on 5 March 1976 (continued till 14 March). * The fair was held on the ground opposite St. Paul's Cathedral and Birla Astronomical Observatory (now Moharkunj Udyan). * The DC Headquarters of Kolkata waived off the rent of the ground. * The entrance was designed by artist Shubhaprasanna and the fair was inaugurated by the then Governor A. L. Dias. * The president of the first fair was Sreeshkumar Kunda. * Initially, many publishers did not join as they were skeptical about the success of the fair, so even though the ground was small, the stalls could not be filled. * NBT exhibited a large section of books and Rupa & Company gave a large pavilion. * However, due to good attendance at the fair, the number of participating publishers increased from the following year and the size of the fair also increased. * As a result of organizing this fair, the Guild participated in the World Book Fair in New Delhi that year and won the best medium stall award. * Supriya Sarkar described this fair as different from foreign fairs and similar only in concept. These facts give a clear idea about the history of the beginning of the Kolkata Book Fair and the efforts of the entrepreneurs behind it.
By SAURIK NAG9 months ago in Art
