G-talk

Rimi B. Chatterjee talks about the Kolkata Book Fair.

M:  Hi Rimi, how has the Book Fair changed over the years?
Rimi: Well, I’ve only been going since the late ’80s and I missed a lot for years in between, including the one where it burnt down.

M: Yes, that was traumatic.
Rimi: I was in England then. Derrida was supposed to come, so it deconstructed!

M: Bad one.
Rimi:.

M: Any books we should be looking out for?
Rimi: Lemme think… Priya Chhabria’s Generation 14 is very interesting… it’s a sci-fi book, quite well written and whimsical.

M: What makes the Book Fair such a top draw?
Rimi: The book fair is Cal’s one big international event… it’s the biggest consumer book fair in the world… people save up all year for that one orgiastic splurge, of course. .

M: Scotland is the theme country this year, and you went to the Edinburgh Literary Festival last year. Any parallels?
Rimi: Of course. Edinburgh is a UNESCO City of Literature and Calcutta is bidding to be one.
We were there partly to see how Edinburgh had handled the bidding process and to look for parallels… it’s better organised though, and smaller.

M: I hear you’re getting Alexander McCall Smith to Kolkata.
Rimi: We are… and we’re very excited to have him.  He’ll probably be surprised at how many fans he has here.

Rimi B. Chatterjee is the author of the novels Signal Red and The City of Love. Her graphic novel Kalpa is out later this year