Rabindranath Tagore books in short supply as govt dithers

In one of those obscure shops in College Street — a lane considered to be a paradise for book lovers — nearly a dozen persons were looking for a copy of the special edition of Rabindra Swaran (Reminiscing Tagore).

Not to forget, the nation is celebrating Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.

“It is a fantastic collection and I am ready to pay upto Rs600 for a copy,” said a lady professor who returned empty handed from the shop.

The helpless shopkeeper tried to explain to his customers that he did not have enough copies of the book.

Published by the government of West Bengal late last year, this highly subsidised book of 1,000 pages priced at Rs200, was a great success. The book has 80 authors discussing Tagore from new perspectives in Bengali on glossy paper.

Government sources said the dearth of copies of the Tagore collection was a result of the Writers’ inability to decide whether to print another 5,000 copies of the book.

Officials in the chief minister’s office said Mamata Banerjee was herself a great lover of Tagore but could not take any decision and has asked her education minister Bratya Basu to decide instead.The state government, however, has planned grand celebrations to observe Tagore’s death anniversary on August 8..

Recently when Union culture minister’s secretary J Sircar met Banerjee to draw up the plan, the Centre promised all help.The ministry plans to observe a day of state-wide functions and the cost of the programmes would be shared, the sources said.