How word travels: Kolkata International Book Fair’s affair with Germany

🖊️ Anuska Bagchi

With the dulcet tunes of auld lang syne, The International Kolkata Book Fair 2025.  Inaugurated in a city where libraries are not just mere buildings made of stone and rubble but sanctuaries where generations have sought refuge in pages. Known as the cultural capital of India, Kolkata has a tiny nook reserved for itself in the hearts of literature lovers. It is a city where books inhale and leave behind stories that linger in the air like the aroma of a cup of freshly brewed cha.

 

Boasting of being the 3rd largest book fair in the world after the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair, the 48th edition of the international kolkata Book Fair started off in a city where books are revered, this annual celebration continues to be a revel of culture, creativity, and community drawing thousands to it with the siren call of the lexicon. The International Kolkata Book Fair is the World’s most visited book fair in the entire world. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the Book Fair upon its inauguration to launch her own books, which are now being sold at her Jaago Bangla stall designed under her tutelage.

 

The book fair isn’t just a cultural event, it’s a tradition. A place where stories come alive, cultures mingle, and people find not only books but also rare pieces of themselves. Whether it’s the allure of first editions, the joy of meeting an author, or simply the aroma of freshly printed pages, the fair has in store something magical for everyone.

 

The bookfair in itself had a humble beginning, with just 52 stalls and big dreams, it drew inspiration from the illustrious Frankfurt Book Fair and in true cyclic fashion, Germany has been the focal country for the first time this year since 1976. Currently the bookfair houses over 1000 stalls. The German pavilion, designed in dedication to the theme country, is nothing short of captivating. A concoction of German literature, art, and culture, the pavilion has splashes of the works by renowned authors like Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka, Max Mueller and many more splattered all over its walls. The gates this time around are dedicated to a combination of German and Indian pioneers of literature, them being—Hackeschen Höfe Gate, Salil Chowdhury Gate, Goethe Gate, Max Mueller Gate, Brandenburg Gate (named after a famous German bridge), Biswa Bangla Gate, Ritwik Ghatak Gate, and Jibananda Nazrul Gate.

 

Books may be the soul of the fair, but its heart beats at the food courts, located strategically near Gates 1 and 9. Visitors can indulge in everything from traditional Bengali dishes like fish fry and puchkas to everyone's beloved mio amore right by Gate 5. Aside from the dedicated food courts, we also find water bottles for public consumption littered across the fair for everyone's consumption. The comforting aroma of coffee from pop-up cafes mingles with the excitement of readers thumbing through their latest finds, creating an intense sensory symphony unique to just the Kolkata Book Fair.

 

The fair has many amenities this time around, starting from a dedicated app to navigate the bustling stalls, a first of its kind. In addition to this, they have top notch security, availability of dedicated parking spaces, disability accessibility, medical assistance on the go.

 

As the 48th edition unfolds, it continues to remind us why Kolkata remains at the centre of the cultural hub of India. It is a city where the written word is celebrated with unmatched passion. The book fair will be live till the 9th of February from 12:00 to 8:00 pm with an additional hour added to the last day for the grand finale. So I urge you, dear readers and connoisseurs of words, to come join the ranks of wordsmiths already in attendance and escape into the land where everything makes sense.