King of Super Sunday

Kolkata, February 9, 2014: College Street of Kolkata is a place which remains abuzz with activities where people throng for all small little books, novels and short stories that suits their needs. But on Sundays the entire area wore a deserted look with no signs of life. And on this day we met the King of Super Sunday Paritosh Bhattacharjee at the grand old historic ‘Coffee House’. 

Paritosh Bhattacharjee at Coffee House- NBI

Sunday is conventionally known as the home sickness day, no office, no work and nothing.  It is the days when people sit back home and spend lovely time with their friends and family members. Yet one striking moments that mesmerised us was the view of a roving bookseller at the Coffee House, Kolkata. Paritosh Bhattacharjee, a graduate from Scottish Church College, in his eighties makes it a point that he hops in every table at the Coffee House on Sundays like other weekdays. He seemed to be dynamically passionate about his profession and love for books always push him to the doors.

Unfortunately, Paritosh lost his parents at a very small age which made him a weak in all aspects. Despite of the demise of his parents, he didn’t lose his faith and continued his studies with his own earnings as he used to give tuitions. The books sold by him are basically the rare collections which we wouldn’t be able to get in the market easily and he is also a reseller of books. Paritosh presents himself unlike the other sellers of books due to his insight knowledge for books as well as his love & devotion for the same. His way of communicating to his prospects, his manners and etiquettes towards every other people makes him impeccable for the profession. When he has been asked eventually the reason behind visiting Coffee House on Sundays as the crowd is lesser, so he firmly replied, “Visiting Coffee House on Sundays makes me visiting new faces at times which are again a good prospect for me to sell books and interacting too. Also I don’t feel like sit back at home during the holidays and hope that it would certainly keep me eventful.”

Paritosh Bhattacharjee has a son who is also doing a business and his family is running smoothly according to his own words. He is a resident from Dum Dum and he exits from his home at 10 AM and reaches at around 10 PM every day to home. During his professional career in selling books in Coffee House, he had words with many eminent people like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Manna Dey and many more. His attire dhoti and kurta makes him look more tangible while operating. The frequent visitors of Coffee House are too much emotionally involved with him and accompany him in his tougher situations of life.

Paritosh Bhattacharjee at Coffee House- NBI

“It gives me immense pleasure while selling books across the entire Coffee House. I also feel like a king of Sunday as being the monopolist who sells books on Sundays in the whole College Street area.” The streets of College Street was all empty, the shutters of the book shops were shut and there was no single chaos of the pedestrians in College Street, therefore it makes this old man really a challenge taker to do trade and committed to do so until his last breath.