Kolkata Bookfair Banned

I don’t know who it is politically correct to blame these days, the people

who had been improperly holding the bookfair all these years or the people

who have managed to stop it, and i don’t give a shit. the important thing

is, the bookfair won’t be happening anymore. and we’re so busy being

fuckers that nobody writes about how these people just slowly,

coldbloodedly murdered what was a tradition. a childhood habit. one of

those things that you cannot buy or sell for money.

for the past 2-3 years, the bookfair hadn’t really been that important to

me. i buy books round the year, and it’s actually when i buy books in a

bulk that i end up not reading them. but it’s not only about that, it’s

never only about that. it’s like not having a new teeshirt to wear on

shoptomi morning, and having the most extravagant wardrobe in the city

instead doesn’t have anything to do with that. it’s like being banned from

eating cake on christmas. it’s about one of those things you cannot buy or

sell for money.

last year when i’d written something along the similar lines, someone

whose opinion i will always respect and look up to had written a strongly

disapproving comment from which i’ll quote: “i am amazed at the

sentimentality and woolly-headedness of the posts on the book fair…so

books cannot be bought and sold without vandalising the one bit of green

we have left? … and now we have bright and intelligent young people all

misty-eyed at the prospect the fair being shifted! i am sorry if this

sounds harsh, but i am shocked at the criminal indifference we indians

seem to have towards the environment.”

i understand his stance, especially more this year round than last, as the

incompetence of the publishers’ and booksellers’ guild becomes more and

more of a standing joke. but as i said at the beginning of the post,

that’s not the reason for my writing and i couldn’t give a lesser shit

about the politics of it. what i am shocked at, t’da, is the criminal

indifference we indians seem to have towards the things that should always

be right in the head, the things that nobody should be allowed to touch or

hurt or take away, the things that make us who we are and keep us sane.

memories, habits, keepsakes, things we grew up with - what’s so cool about

dropping them? why can’t they be important enough for us to fight for?