The Bhavan Bookfest 2025, a regional book fair for Delhi’s Bengali community, was organized at Chittaranjan Bhavan in CR Park from 12 to 21 September. Organized by CR Park’s Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Memorial Society (DCMS), the ten-day event brought together publishers, booksellers, authors, book lovers and literary enthusiasts and saw book launches, discussions, cultural shows, and literary activities.
Several small and large book publishers and bookstores from West Bengal participated, including Patralekha, Banishilpa Publishers & Booksellers, Patra Bharati, Read Bengali Bookstore, Daksha Bharati, Bee Books, Subernarekha, Udbodhan, Hawakal, Anjali Prokashani, Ananda, Mahua, Woodpecker, Shishu Sahitya Samsad, Dey’s Publishing, Khoai Publishing, and Dev Sahitya Kutir. English Publishers Rupa and Niyogi Books were also present.
Niyogi Books – paying homage to Bengali roots
Niyogi Books had a well-curated collection for readers of all ages – captivating fiction from its Olive Turtle imprint, thought-provoking translations from its Thornbird imprint, engaging non-fiction from its Paper Missile imprint along with enriching Hindi titles from its Bahuvachan imprint. The publishing house’s youngest imprint Perky Parrot featured a collection of national and international children’s literature. There was a collection of coffee table books on Kolkata and West Bengal’s history.
Trisha De Niyogi, director and COO of Niyogi Books, who participated in a book discussion on ‘Books GenZ reads,’ told Indian Printer & Publisher, “Speciality book fairs like Bhavan Bookfest play a vital role in promoting Bengal-themed literature, both in English and Bengali. Hosted at Chittaranjan Bhavan, with its year-long cultural and literary programming, the fair is a natural culmination of those efforts just before Durga Puja. For publishers, it provides the perfect platform to present a niche voice that can cut through the clutter of the larger market. With its great timing and the sustained efforts of the organizers, the Bookfest helps Bengal’s history, culture, and literary traditions find both new audiences and loyal readers.”
Highlighted titles for this year are Harry Hobbs of Kolkata and Other Forgotten Lives by Devasis Chattopadhyay, A History Of Santiniketan Rabindranath Tagore And His Lifes Work 1861 – 1941 by Uma Das Gupta, Mujib’s Blunders: The Power and the Plot Behind His Killing by Manash Ghosh, Contemporary Urdu Short Stories from Kolkata, edited by Shams Afif Siddiqi & Fuzail Asar Siddiqi, and translated by Shams Afif Siddiqi, and The Scratch and Sniff Chronicles by Hemangini Dutt Majumder, Niyogi said. A History Of Santiniketan was exclusively available at the fest before its official launch in October.
Read Bengali Bookstore – Making reading Bengali fashionable
Read Bengali Bookstore from Kolkata, about which we had written earlier, had a prominent stand with a good collection of fiction and non-fiction titles in Bengali along with merchandise such as coasters with characters from Satyajit Ray’s movies, Kolkata-themed fridge magnets, notebooks and notepads featuring famous cartoon characters on their covers along with T-shirts featuring the hand-pulled rickshaw from Bengal, Kolkata’s yellow taxis, trams and artwork featuring Goddess Durga.
Bhasa Classics, Read Bengali Bookstore’s parent company and an independent publishing house, publishes all-time classics from Rabindranath Tagore to Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Two new books on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and a comic on Sukumar Ray were launched by Bhasa Classics at the Read Bengali Bookstore’s stand at the Bhavan Bookfest – Netajir Secret Service (Netaji’s Secret Service) by Pabitra Mohan Ray, Netaji O Sekaler Durgapuja (Netaji & Durga Puja of those days) by Soumobrota Dasgupta, and Ha ja ba ra la by Sukumar Ray, illustrated by Charbak Dipta.
Pritam Sengupta from Read Bengali Bookstore said they received an overwhelming response on all days.
Nandy Enterprises – For English and Bengali books
Nandy Enterprises, publishers and distributors for major publishing houses, including Rupa Publications, HarperCollins Publishers India and Penguin Random House for North India, had a large stand. Popular award-winning books such as The Golden Road by William Dalrymple, Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, and Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq and translated by Deepa Bhasthi found many takers. Arundhati Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me was another hot pick among fair visitors.
The stand had a large selection of English and Bengali titles from its publishing arm, Nandy Books. Its publication Calcutta Then and Now by Rathin Mitra was available in both Bengali and English and generated a lot of interest among readers and book lovers.
Debashis Nandy from Nandy Enterprises said, “Bengali books are selling well, much better than English books. We have tried to keep a selection of various genres of books to appeal to readers of all ages and interests. Many new publishers from Kolkata participated to publicize their Bengali books in Delhi. This year, the footfall was low. Still, many visitors were leaving with a book or two.”
Unmukta Uchchwas – trilingual literary magazine
CR Park-based Unmukta Uchchwas Literary Society promoted its 31-year-old trilingual biannual literary magazine, Unmukta Uchchwas.
“Unmukta Uchchwas is the first magazine in India published in three languages – English, Bengali and Hindi. To manage three languages in a single magazine is very difficult, but bringing out such a magazine from Delhi is all the more difficult as people are used to writing in English here. We make our contributors write in Bengali, we discuss their articles with them and ensure we can translate into Bengali. We receive Hindi contributions from time to time,” Aditya Sen, editor of Unmukta Uchchwas shared with Indian Printer & Publisher.
Bringing out a magazine, that too a trilingual one is a big job, Sen said, adding no one has been able to bring out, let alone sustain, such a publication for over three decades. “We have been thinking how long we can continue this magazine.” In order to sustain the publication, they have attached it to a trust under well-known economist-turned-poet Dr Bisweswar Bhattacharyya.
Unmukta Uchchwas is supplied to bookshops in Delhi and Kolkata. The trust participates in the Kolkata Book Fair and three Delhi book fairs focusing on Bengali literature – the four-day Dakshin Delhi Kalibari Boimela in November, the four-day Bengal Association’s Delhi Boimela in March, and the Bhavan Bookfest.
This article is from the upcoming November edition of Indian Printer & Publisher magazine.
