One of the largest publishing houses in Eastern India, Parul Prakashani celebrated the 75th birthday of its founder, Gourdas Saha, with a book launch and felicitation ceremony this afternoon at B C Roy Auditorium near College Street. The book launch program involved the unveiling of Aparajito, a collection of numerous essays, documenting the meteoric rise of Parul Prakashani under Saha’s leadership. Swami Suparnanandaji Maharaj of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, released the book. Renowned singer Siddartha Sarnkar Ray, known as Sidhu, was present in this programme as a special guest.
Edited by Chanchal Kumar Ghosh, the book documents how Parul Prakashani, established in Agartala in 1981, excelled in publishing text and reference books besides fostering Bengali literature. Saha’s unmatched endeavours in restoring the historic Sandesh and Balak magazines were much appreciated. An acclaimed edition of the English Gitanjali was another milestone. Parul Prakashani’s celebrated Muhurtakatha series, comprising classic short stories by renowned authors such as Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Buddhadeb Guha, Mahasweta Devi, Atin Bandyopadhyay, and Bani Basu, stands as another game changer.
Gourdasbabu ensures that every book from Parul Prakashani undergoes meticulous editing and
flawless printing. They are all decked with aesthetically enriched covers. Besides closely working with renowned authors of our time, Saha has introduced new literary voices during his four-decade-long career as a publisher. He has been a driving force behind the modernization of Bengali comics and graphic novels as well.
The same event hosted the Brain of Bengal Award, conferred upon eleven distinguished
personalities for their significant contribution to literature, culture, arts, science, and social service, including Sri Puranjan Prasad Chakraborty (Literature & Social Science), Prof. Asit Kumar Mondal (History & Social Studies), Dr. Subhas Chandra Ray (Education & Applied Psychology), Prof.
Imankalyan Lahiri (Political & Social Science), Dr. Sandip Roy (Biological Science & Environmental Studies), Sri Tapas Kumar Purkait (Mathematics & Statistics), Prof.Chittaranjan Sinha (Chemistry & Environmental Studies), Prof. Madan Mohan Bhattacharya (Biological Science & Environmental Studies), Prof. Baridbaran Ghosh (Literature & Social Science), Prof. Santosh Kumar Ghorai (Physics & Environmental Studies), and Prof. Sampat Mukherjee (Economics & Social Science).
The event was attended by eminent personalities from the literary, academic, and cultural circles, making it a grand tribute to Gourdas Saha’s legacy and his contribution to the publishing world.
