Art Scape and Rare Words

🖊️SNU Staffer

Book fair is not just the hallowed ground for books it's also a mesmerising mosaic of art craft and rare thoughts. 

 

One such stall near Gate one was coming to life with a Rabindra Bharati University student Aratrika Karmakar’s brushstrokes. “I am a philosophy student. But I love painting. I thought of giving my brother’s stall a personal touch,” the girl said. The stall belongs to her elder brother and the younger sibling was giving shape to his dreams. 

Another stall carried an interesting tagline “samporko rohosso tantro bhoi/ timeline jure choi ek ke choi”. The stall also wore a gothic look to go with the tagline. Monica Chowdhury said, “We created this tagline to match the genre of books we will sell this edition. The whole stall has been crafted by us with our own hands.” 

 

Similarly, one stall gave a tagline ‘Prokashonar Soipata’ that held several books of interest. 

This apart there are some rare gems strewn about in the smaller stalls tucked away in little corners of the fair like the book Maanbhumer Roopkatha that catches the folk tales of the indigenous people of Maanbhum. There are books like Ramayan Juger Bharat by Surendranath Mitra and Rarh Panchalika by Swapankymar Thakur that talks about the folk tales, folk lores, local culture, local language and stories about indigenous Gods. 

If you thought that was the lot then meet Krishna-Arjun and the battles they lost through the eyes various Indian puranas, regional lores, storytelling and legends. The last book I found during this quest is ‘Aat Nari ebong Karna’ by Anmay Gupta deals with the women in his life be it at war or his personal gains.