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Journalism of Courage
Stall No 109 at the Kolkata Book Fair is a treasure trove of old rare books collected over 40 years
If there are thousands who are braving the dust,the distance and the newest addition to the Kolkata Book Fair mosquitoes,theres a royal reward awaiting them. For people who have managed to hold luxury in the written word,theres nothing like sinking your face between the covers of a new book,take in the salty smell of new paper and feel the coarse brush of the print on your cheeks. People who would be definitely out of place in Stall No 109 at the fair. Unless of course they like the feel of cautiously running their fingers on slippery,moth-eaten,yellowed pages of very old books. Books that are probably out of print,books that might not be of great literary value but are important because they are witnesses of a time long past.
Apart from that he sources books from old Bengali aristocracy,royal families and people with zamindari roots who seem disinterested in keeping them.
Bhattacharya has a copy of the first print of the Gitanjali dating back to 1910,a compilation called Letters,Despatches and other State Papers from the Bombay Secretariat (1887). The latter costs about Rs 14,000. Its a valuable document of how the British conducted state affairs. I also have copies of Mohonbhog,a very interesting childrens magazine from early 1900s. It gives you an idea of how childrens literature evolved in our language, says Bhattacharya.
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