Victor: - Nowadays, that hype is not there. Earlier, the Book Fair of Kolkata had its own charm.
Brown: - The people of City of Joy are fond of reading books.
Arindam: - Don’t have a wrong perception that all the people who visit the Kolkata Book Fair are fond of reading books. There are many visitors who just go there to have a nice adda session, to see some beautiful girls, to eat foods in different food stalls and to sing songs with a guitar. If you see a book stall, where the old people are standing in queue, then it has to be the stall of ‘Mousumi Prakashani’.
Meenu: - Actually, the location of Maidan was the rocking place to enjoy Book Fair, but, due to some complaints from the Military people and the environmentalists of Kolkata, the book fair has shifted its venue to the outer area of Salt Lake Stadium. Also, it is true that the visitors of Book Fair used to create more pollution, by not following the strict guidelines.
Victor: - in these years, people are not visiting the Kolkata Book Fair with too much enthusiasm. Their attitude is like, ‘Accha, samay pele jaabo ekhon, naa geleyo hoy.’ Earlier, that same person used to shout like a little boy, ‘arrey, mama, boi mela abar suru hocchey kaal theke…ekdum jomiye adda maarbo boss…kaalkei plan kar…sabai miley ekta reunion kori at the Kolkata Book Fair’.
Brown: - Hmm…so you want to say that for changing that location of Kolkata Book Fair, people have lost interest in books or are it that the readers of our young generation using electronic gadgets to read stories and articles, instead of buying books from the stalls.
Meenu: - Yeah, the latter one is definitely true. In these days, companies like Samsung, LG have launched mobile phones, where you can store any .PDF files and read it. Maybe, who knows, after the completion of 3G Auction, the laptops will become obsolete also.
Victor: - I don’t think that for these things, readers will stop buying the books. Readers still prefer books rather than E-books in .PDF files.
Arindam: - No boss, the concept is changing nowadays. In earlier days, a writer used to write in a piece of paper or diary with an ink pen. Today, a writer only needs a PC and MS-Office software installed in it, to write an article.
Victor: - how a reader can read that article, unless it is printed or published in any magazine or newspapers?
Brown: - Ha ha ha…Victor, Nowadays, you don’t need to run after those editors. You can publish your article in any blog site, if you are a registered member of that website. Many eminent writers are now writing their articles in MS-Word and publishing it in their personal websites in the form of blogs. They are even converting their entire article in MS-Word to a .PDF file and uploading it in a website, where they display free e-books of eminent writers. This is the age of globalization. You can access any e-book, by sitting at one corner of your house. To read a book, you don’t need to visit book fairs or stalls. You don’t have to spend too much of money for buying a particular book.
Meenu: - but, then, how will a writer earn his living? The concept of royalty on a book is dying out in this case.
Arindam: - Not at all. There are big companies, who have created the blog sites. Now, they hire eminent writers to write blogs. These blogger get good sum of money from the company. Now, the online readers will also have to get registered with that blog site, by paying some amount annually to get access to the blogs of those eminent writers. Ultimately, the bloggers and the readers are protecting the environment only. No papers and inks are wasted, so, there will be less demand for woods and water and hence cutting down of trees will decrease automatically and some amount of water can be saved. There are also no tension that the books will get torn or burnt due to some accidents or natural hazards, because all the writings are now saved electronically in several databases with proper authentication and backup. Moreover, one day will come, when school students don’t need to carry their heavy bags loaded with books. They will just sit in the classroom in front of a laptop and will read the e-books and the teacher will teach them. Therefore, in the war of ‘BLOGS VS BOOKS’, the Blogs are the winners and here to stay in India.
