Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Kolkata Book Fair is now full-fledged by the book lovers of all ages. In the first pic, enthusiastic book lovers are gathered to enter in the pavilion of Peru. And in the second pic, the little book lovers are searching the books for them. Pic courtesy : Bartaman -- A. B.

Today is the inauguration of 38th International Kolkata Book Fair at Milan Mela. The Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the fair this evening. 'Peru' is the theme of this year. The eminent writer Shankar was present on the stage. Bolivia and Singapore are participating for the first time. Some other attractions of this book fair are - 1. Three-days Kolkata language-literature festival, 2. P C Chandra Book Museum pavilion where many specimens of history of books will be there, 3. NBT Bhasa-bandhan where exhibition of books in Indian languages would be there. The 3-days long Kolkata language-literature festival will inaugurate central minister Sri Sashi Tharoor following by the songs of Usha Uthup who also created the signature tune of this year's book fair. Moreover, arrangements of lucky coupon and book privilege card have been made at the fair. A pavilion on the name of Suchitra Sen will be there too. Life time achievement ...

Saraswati is now under preparation of the clay artists of Kumortuli, Kolkata. Saraswati puja is now 13 days to go. -- A. B.

Kumortuli of Kolkata is now busy to complete the idols of goddess Saraswati as the next 4February is Saraswati puja in Bengal. -- A. B.

Kumortuli of Kolkata is now busy to prepare clay idols of goddess Saraswati. Next 4 February is the Saraswati puja in Bengal. -- A. B.

Suchitra Sen - 'Greta Garbo' of Bengal is no more. Her physical condition was deteriorated since last evening and then suffered a massive cardiac arrest and died at 8:25 this morning, according to her family sources. Suchitra Sen had been living a life of recluse for the last three decades. She was born on 6 April, 1931 in Pabna of Bangladesh. And acted in 60 films mostly as the heroine. She acted in many superhit Bengali films with Uttam Kumar. I liked the films - Saptapadi, Harano Sur, Pathe Holo Deri, Bipasha, Indrani etc. I liked also her hit film Saat Pake Bandha against Soumitra Chattopadhyay in the year 1963, for which she won the best actress award at Moscow Film Festival. She was the first Indian to receive such international award. I liked many other films of Suchitra Sen like Gulzar's Aandhi, Bimal Roy's Devdas etc. Suchitra Sen died at the age of 82, but she will remain with us as the romantic heroine of Bengali silver screen, for ever. ...

500 year's old fish fair or matso Mela has been held yesterday at Krishnapur village near Debanandapur - the birthplace of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay in Hooghly district. The fair use to held near the 'akhra' of Raghunath Das Babaji whose name one can find in the novel of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The most remarkable feature of this fish fare is that here one can buy a small piece from a big fish. Every kind of fish - from chara pona to rui, katla, mrigel, deshi bhetki, bhola bhetki, mumbai bhetki, ilish, chingri, gurjali, aar, golda chingri, topse, pakhi mach, hatir kaan, badur mach, shankar mach, boal mach use to sell in this fair. And bigger fishes are the main attraction of this fair. A 25 kg Aar fish was one of the main attraction of this fair as seen in this picture.