A book fair committee in Hooghly’s Pandua put up 20 rare books for public auction on Sunday night to encourage the preservation of old books among book lovers.
The initiative, which organisers claimed to be the first-ever at any book fair in the state, offered a great deal for people to grab rare books on the concluding day of the 15th edition of Pandua Book Fair.
The rare books auctioned included century-old first print editions of books like Dharmamangal, Matri Tantrer Sadhana o Bhabna, and a translated version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Dharmamangal authored by Ramdas Adak won the highest bid and was sold for Rs 2,270.
Asked about the proceeds from the auction, the book fair committee said the entire amount of around Rs 8,000 was handed over to a first-year postgraduate student who is financially weak and suffered from thalassemia.
President of the book fair committee Susanta Sarkar, who began the event in memory of his daughter, said: “We have seen online auctions of books, but never heard about it being done in the physical format at a book fair. The initiative was undertaken to encourage book lovers to collect and preserve antiquarian books, while trying to help a poor thalassemic student in her fight for survival.”
The auction concept was conceived by Sarkar’s friend Partha Chattopadhyay, who teaches at Balagarh Bijoy Krishna Mahavidyalaya.
“We are indebted to Partha Babu who has a great collection of books. He offered some old books for auction for a social cause while encouraging people, particularly those from the young generation, to come forward to buy and preserve old books. We agreed to the proposal and requested him to conduct the auction,” Sarkar added.
Chattopadhyay told The Telegraph: “People now prefer reading ebooks. So we wanted readers to return to the pleasure of reading physical books, even if they are old. The response was overwhelming.”
The organising committee set a minimum base price of Rs 50 each for the books considering their content and original price.
