Book Launch of 'Beyond Kolkata: Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination'

Book Launch of 'Beyond Kolkata: Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination'

Authored By: Ishita Dey, Ranabir Samaddar and Suhit Sen

Organised by Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata

Venue: Academy of Fine Arts (Seminar Hall)

Date: August 20^th, 2013, Tuesday at 4.30 pm

The day started with one of the heaviest showers in decade in the history of Kolkata. Though still people came in braving the heavy rains. The program started with the Third Jayanta Dasgupta Memorial Lecture by Naba Dutta, Eminent labour and human-rights activist on present conditions of labour movement in West Bengal. This was followed by the release of the book and discussion on Beyond Kolkata: Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination.

The book was released and the discussion was started by Prof. Brett Nielsen, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney, who spoke about why there was a need for this study and this research work and how it would help the scholars to understand the real meaning of modern urbanization and the myths attached to it. This was followed up by the detailed review of the book by Prof. Samita Sen Vice-Chancellor, Diamond Harbour Women’s University and Prof. Anup Sinha, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, who spoke in his own capacity about what he felt about this book and also was glad that Routledge published this research work and this book and which was very essential.

Finally the author Prof. Ranabir Samaddar, Director of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group and co-author Ishita Dey spoke on what they felt behind writing this book and the journey they went through which made them discover new things about the so called urbanization of spaces and geopolitical factors involved with it.

The event was attended by approx. 60 invitees who made every attempt to reach the venue despite all the odds caused by the heavy rains. All the participants were given Routledge folders which were specially prepared for this event, the folders contained the following materials: 

• Coloured flier of the book
• RIO colored catalogue
• CD containing RIO catalogue
• A page about RIO Publishing program
• Contact Information of sales & Marketing of T&F India

It was indeed delightful to see each and every participant browsing through the folders, the pages and the catalogue during the entire event.