Booked for Bengal?

Benita Sen explores the reasons why the search for stores selling Bengali books can be trying, even in Kolkata.

When Anindita Roy visits Kolkata, her original home, she brings with her a list of Bengali books she would like to take back with her to the US. The list is culled from reviews she reads on the Net or off Bengali magazines she takes the trouble to catch up with when she returns to Buffalo, thousands of miles from home. And it’s a list that takes virtually a year to compile, a year from her last holiday home.

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Buying books is always exciting for someone who enjoys reading, but Anindita finds the experience a little trying for Bengali books. From her south Kolkata home, she has to go all the way braving the traffic of central Kolkata, to College Street, which has picked up the image of ‘bangla boi para’ or the Bengali book locality. "I’ve always wondered why Bengali bookstores are limited to pockets of the city," she observes.

And Anindita isn’t too off the mark. Bookstores abound in the city that holds a book fair that is legendary in Asia. South Kolkata, vying for TRP ratings with the fast-developing eastern fringes, recently patted itself on the back for a new floor to one of its new book outlets and another brand new book retail point. And yet, most of the books in most of the book retail outlets are in English.

"Leaving aside College Street, there are hardly any book stores in Central or South Kolkata, where Bengali books can be browsed and selected," agrees Prem Prakash, who runs a successful outlet just outside bustling New Market.