[sadhuji]

WHITHER BOI MELA 2008

The Booksellers and Publishers Guild is in an embarrassing situation with the Honorable Court ruling today that the 2008 boi mela cannot be held in the Park Circus maidan. This annual boi mela (book fair) was an event that all Kolkattans looked forward to not just to get lost in the jungle of a wide variety of books but also to savor the tastes of lost cultures. In between stalls that did roaring business in selling books from dictionaries to ‘sewing made easy’, there would be the men and women who would come from distant villages to peddle their handicrafts, the artists who would sketch you in a matter of minutes in exchange for a few rupees or the innumerable stalls of sweets that brought back memories of bygone eras. It might sound strange but there are people who live away from Kolkata but plan their holidays to be able to attend the fair during January.

The basic decision of the Guild to hold it in a congested area like Park Circus where several schools and hospitals are located and which is the centre of one of the busiest crossings of the city was an ill advised one. There is no dispute over the fact that a fair of this magnitude requires plenty of area. However, in view of the damage to environments in the Maidan, the warning bells had been sounded in 2006. Last year (2007), it had reluctantly been shifted to the Salt Lake stadium but the attraction was lost. The patrons failed to turn up in large numbers because of transportation problems. A practical solution would have been to provide additional buses (shuttle services) from different corners of the city to ferry people back and forth. That would have saved the Guild the blushes – as it stands, this unfortunate state of things has brought the fair into disrepute.

It was given to understand that a large area had been earmarked on the EM Bypass to have a permanent venue for fairs of this nature. Instead of pursuing that option, the Guild wanted to browbeat the administration into submission – that was an incorrect attitude and they would now be paying a price for this lack of foresight.

[jyotirmoy]

Its time Kolkata develops some thing like the Pragati Maidan of Delhi.

[sadhuji]

'....Its time Kolkata develops some thing like the Pragati Maidan of Delhi......'

the latest info is that the inauguration would be done today positively as scheduled - the venue is likely to be the 'milon mela prangan' on em bypass ...