48th Kolkata International Book Fair: Buying A Book Will Get You A British Era Cigarette Box

The packets of Kali Cigarettes were kept in the pockets of most freedom fighters as the boxes were used to transmit secret information among rebels.

Kolkata: Buying a book will get you an empty cigarette box with a plethora of information instead of tobacco sticks. The packets of Kali Cigarettes were kept in the pockets of most freedom fighters during the colonial era as the boxes were used to transmit secret information among the rebels.

With time, Kali Cigarette has entered the chapter of history and this year at the 48th edition of the Kolkata International Book Fair, the Collegepara Publisher has made the colonial relic available to booklovers to walk down memory lane.

Their stall, no. 116, been set up near the Gate No. 1 of the book fair where visitors are greeted with "Kali Mayer Boma" in large letters atop the main entrance. Proceeding some steps ahead, one can discover two books, Banglar Tantra O Kolkatar Biplab and Kali Mayer Boma, by Abhishek Chattopadhyay on the Swadeshi Movement on display.

Banglar Tantra O Kolkatar Biplab was published in the last-to-last book fair while Kali Mayer Boma was launched in this edition.

"Banglar Tantra O Kolkatar Biplab narrates the story of how the tantra and the armed revolution are intermingled. The Swadeshis used to keep the Kali Cigarette in their pocket and we have tried to create a replica of it to let the readers have a feel of the movement," Chattopadhyay said.

Along with the Kali Cigarette box, some versions of goodness Kali are also being given to the readers. Chattopadhyay collected these pictures from the Calcutta Art Studio which were worshipped by the revolutionaries to get motivation.

"There have been very few efforts to reconstruct the history of Bengal and the book is one of the handful. There is a good demand for the book among the readers. Initially, we published Banglar Tantra O Kolkatar Biplab. The sequel of the book, named Kali Mayer Boma, was published in 2023. Usually, prequels are published first followed by sequels. But, we have done just the reverse as in done with recent movies," Sayan Bhattacharya of Collegepara Publisher said.

A sneak peak into Banglar Tantra O Kolkatar Biplab. (ETV Bharat)

"The Kali Cigarette and other stuff were interesting and they are loaded with many unknown information. I think it will not be a disappointing reading," Suchismita Bhattacharya, a visitor, said.