This year, Shreya Datta is visiting the International Kolkata Book Fair not as a book lover but a researcher. “Do you have any literary works on the pandemic?” the MPhil scholar, studying comparative literature and translation at the Central University of Gujarat, asks at every stall she steps into.
Considering that it has been two long years since COVID-19 struck, the answer is more often than not in the affirmative. Her quest, to examine pandemic literature as a genre, originated during the lockdown-forced migration and is driven by her need to collect itihasa, which she believes is different from the western concept of history.
“History is just facts, itihasa has a narrative along with facts,” says Ms. Datta, whose efforts have yielded rich results. “My collection is already big. If I have to choose the important ones, then I would say Labour Train by Manjira Saha; Uran Little Magazine; Itihase Mahamari Mannantar, edited by Nandita Sengupta; Dussamayer Dinalipi by Sankar; Pandemic and the Politics of Life by Ranabir Samaddar; and Katha Haranor Journal by Nasrin Nazma, a COVID warrior herself.”
The pandemic, needless to say, is making its presence felt at the fair — be it on the spines of several books, or in the form of face masks, or the general mood at the event that’s being held at Central Park in Salt Lake City. The crowds are back, but not enough yet to kick up dust, but these are still early days — the fair will go on till March 13.
Online boost
“The fact that the fair is being held, even if after a gap of two years, that itself is an indication that humankind is stronger than the virus,” said Moumita Bhattacharyya, proprietor of Rik Prakashani, a small publishing house. “But if you ask me, the pandemic seems to have worked in our favour. Our books are available online and our sales were quite good during the last two years because I think many people rediscovered their reading habit.”
To substantiate her point, she cites figures: her firm, not even six years old, has published 56 titles till date; of them 21 were published in the past two years. Among their latest releases, a collection of writings by poet Shankha Ghosh, who died last year, has already sold over 300 copies, a rather big number for a small Bengali publisher.
Mohd. Sajed, who sells used and rare books on College Street and who has a stall at the fair, said that the pandemic was kinder to him than Cyclone Amphan: “The pandemic was something I could tide over, business was almost back to normal within a few weeks of the lockdown being lifted, but the cyclone destroyed some 500 rare books.” The oldest book in his stall happened to be a copy of 1926-published Ancient India.
For Mayura Mishra, who owns the Storyteller Bookstore and is participating in the fair after 16 years, this time running the Simon & Schuster stall, some things haven’t changed at all while many things have.
“Prices of books may have increased, but the passion has not died down. The knowledge of the reader has increased, but many are checking prices on Amazon before deciding to buy. There is more theft of books, more selfies than before, and far more pictures taken of books, especially graphic novels. Also, the halls are air-conditioned for the first time,” Ms. Mishra said.
The fair, which traditionally begins on the last Sunday of January, was postponed by a month due to Omicron surge.
