A June Kolkata fair pre-supposes the pandemic will be under a semblance of control by then, but as we see in richer nations, having the vaccine and rolling it out are two separate problems, and in a developing country of 1.4 billion people six months is nowhere near time enough to tame the virus by vaccine alone. Begging the question whether we might see a Kolkata International Book Fair at all this year.
With the theme Amader Tripura, Sresta Tripura (Our Tripura, Best Tripura) February 26 was announced by Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura Jishnu Deb Barma as the start date for the 39th Agartala Book Fair, along with the welcome news that the event would be held at the Hapania International Fair Ground in Agartala.
The move will bring back on board the Tripura Publishers Guild which last year boycotted the event because it was held at a venue outside the city of Agartala. Deb Barma has invited publishers from Bangladesh, Guwahati and Kolkata to participate in the book fair, but with Covid-19 yet to be tamed it’s anyone’s guess whether publishers from outside the city will attend this year.
But while the big international fairs like Kolkata and New Delhi have been forced to reschedule, some Indian book fairs have gone ahead to plan, with the Guwahati Book Fair being the first major event of the Indian book fair calendar, having started December 30 and ended January 10.
The 33rd Guwahati Book Fair is said to have seen a record turnout, but I’ve been unable to find any numbers to illustrate the point. If anyone has the numbers, do share.
Meanwhile the massive Kolkata International Book Fair, India’s biggest literary event, has been postponed until June, with no clear dates set. With typical audience numbers around the two million mark it was inevitable the event could not go ahead in its usual end-January-into-February slot, and Tridib Chatterjee, president of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, has said the fair will aim to take place immediately after the early summer elections, and once schools and colleges are re-opened.
That of course pre-supposes the pandemic will be under a semblance of control by then, but as we see in richer nations, having the vaccine and rolling it out are two separate problems, and in a developing country of 1.4 billion people six months is nowhere near time enough to tame the virus by vaccine alone. Begging the question whether we might see a Kolkata International Book Fair at all this year.
