Calcutta, Jan. 24: Enter, Mamata Bhattacharjee.
The journey she had started from the inauguration of the Calcutta Film Festival two months ago reached another milestone ' the Calcutta Book Fair ' today and the chief minister made it clear that she has usurped what used to be her predecessor's favourite space.
Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not turn up at the inaugural of the book fair ' a rarity in recent memory.
If Bhattacharjee was missed, Mamata sought to fill the void with not one but three "B"s ' boi, bou and buddhi (book, wife and intellect).
"Boi, gharer bou aar buddhi dhar dite nei (No one should lend books, wives and intellect). The one who takes it will start using and never return," the chief minister advised the gathering. According to some fair veterans who keep track of such statistics, Mamata's 30-minute speech was the longest by a chief minister at the event.
"Mamata made her presence felt and it was clear that she was extremely comfortable in the setting," said a member of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, the organisers of the 36th edition of the annual affair.
During her two-hour-plus stay at Milan Mela, she mingled freely with the guests 'Italian ambassador Giacomo Sanfelice di Monteforte, Italian writer-journalist Beppe Severgnini (the chief guest), actor Kabir Bedi, writers Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Sanjib Chattopadhyay ' and enjoyed a wide array of music played out at the inaugural ceremony.
The introduction of music at the inaugural was the chief minister's brainchild, said one of the organisers while adding that she wanted a change in the look and feel of the show.
Among the books that were released on the inaugural day were Mamata's memoirs in English, My Unforgettable Memories, two collections in Bengali penned by Mamata, a book on Mamata's photographs taken over the years and some more.
With Italy as the theme country, a concert was the first performance of the day. Members of the Calcutta Music Academy played compositions by Mozart and Vivaldi before wrapping up the show with Rabindrasangeet.
Mamata's signature preferences were written all over the annual affair, which will continue till February 5.
She had micro-managed the Calcutta Film Festival the same way and in an attempt to involve more people in the festival she brought the inauguration out of the confines of Nandan to the Netaji Indoor stadium, where 5,000 people turned up. On her insistence, the information and cultural affairs department got Sharmila Tagore and Shah Rukh Khan to add glamour to the event.
Following the film festival model, the Calcutta Literary Meet, to be held along with the fair, got a theme song this year ' Ei patay oi patay, boi ashey Kolkatay, boley jaay shei haoway, kathara jonmabey bondhuttay (Books are coming to Calcutta and words of friendship will spread).
"The chief minister wanted Chandril and Anindya of Chandrabindoo to pen the song… Kaushiki Desikan and Monali Thakur sung it to the tunes of Bollywood composer Shantanu Moitra," said a guild source.
The men and women behind the theme song were seen on the dais.
Old-timers in the guild recounted how they found a similarity between Bhattacharjee and Mamata in terms of their association with the event.
The former chief minister ' a poet himself ' took special interest in the fair by giving his views on the theme nation to the list of invitees in the inaugural programme. Despite a busy schedule, he tried to visit the book fair venue ' shifted from the Maidan to Salt Lake Stadium to Milan Mela because of judicial orders ' at least once a day. He was so attached to the fair on the Maidan that he had lashed out at environmentalists for forcing it out of the greens in the heart of the city.
Mamata, however, made special efforts to ensure that no parallels were drawn between her and her predecessor as she hinted that the role of the government would be minimum in organising the fair.
"The previous government had tried to organise a government-controlled fair but it wasn't successful. They (the guild) have been organising the book fair for so many years and doing it successfully," she said.
She assured the guests from Italy that their books would be read in Bengal. "Delegates from Italy, please take care of the book fair. We will read your books," Mamata said.
A Bengali translation of Severgnini's La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind is available. A copy was given to Mamata.
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