Anyone who learns Bengali from early school days, has to be familiar with this gem from Pundit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar. Barna Parichay stands for learning the alphabets (Bengali alphabets here). Once the first barrier is crossed, the next course is a series of easy learners, Sahaj Path, created by Rabindranath Tagore. Without these preliminaries (or at least the Barna Parichay), no matter how hard you try, it’ll be difficult to learn Bengali.
This however is not a discourse on Vidyasagar’s immortal creation. Barnaparichay – the two words together – is proposed to be the name of a swanky mall planned at the premises where College Street market now stands. It will be a book mall, said to be the first in the country, with the redoubtable Hafeez Contractor taking charge as the lead-architect of the project.
It may as well be, because College Street boipara – though in shambles today – is reminiscent of Bengal’s extraordinary literary and cultural past, what with memories of luminaries walking down the streets opposite Calcutta University still alive among old-timers.
College Street book market – shadows of past.
Picture source : http://www.kolkataweb.com/picture/calcutta/college_st.jpg.
Barnaparichay will be a half-a-million square feet of edifice that will blend books with art and culture, shopping, food and entertainment. A museum of rare books and an auction house are also planned in the mall, and of course parking space for 2800 cars.
Before I end, here’s a small information. If you want to learn Bengali in earnest, you may download Arnab Bhattacharya’s Barna Parichay in both PDF and PS formats. Proceed here.
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