Hok Kolorob! says Calcutta
It rained the whole day today in Calcutta. It poured, and poured, the intensity of the rain matched only by the spirit of the city’s young who showed what makes Calcutta a city with a soul. In many ways, Calcutta is a dying city. There are no jobs, there is no future, and most educated…
City in grip of football fever
A limp German flag hangs from a string at Ballygunge Phanri (in South Calcutta) on a rain-soaked day. I ask the taxi-driver to slow down for me to take a picture of it. I wanted to mail it to my friends in Germany. “They will be happy to know their team has supporters here,” I…
Tale of two rallies
I recently attended two political rallies of the candidates from the Jadavpur constituency—Sugata Bose of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Sujan Chakraborty of the Communist Party of India, Marxists (CPM)—while working on a story I did for Mint Lounge. Chakraborty’s was a small padayatra—fewer campaigners and more intimate in feel—on a Tuesday morning in the…
Kolkata Book Fair 2014 tour: Stall number 271
So how is Kolkata Book Fair different from the Jaipur Litfest? I’ve been asked this several times and I have always failed to give a convincing answer. How difficult it is to describe the fair to someone who has never seen it! There are hundreds of stalls to buy books from–the ongoing Kolkata Book Fair…
‘Boi Pujo’ kicks off in Calcutta
Kolkata boi mela is the best boi mela in the world. The 38th edition of the Kolkata Book Fair–the largest retail book-fair in the world–kicked off at the Milan Mela grounds on Tuesday evening. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Peruvian author and academician Francesca Denegri inaugurated the 10-day event by sounding a gong at a…
Countdown to the Kolkata Book Fair
Two days to go for the 38th annual Kolkata Book Fair, Milan Mela grounds smelled of fresh paint, plywood and anticipation. It’s like a city under construction. Frantic preparations are afoot to put in place one of the largest book fairs in the world, an important event in Calcutta’s winter calendar. It must be said…