A unique book on the nostalgia embracing Kolkata titled Lattuparar Letti Kotha was launched at the ongoing 48th International Kolkata Book Fair (IKBF).

Penned by Asok Kumar Mukhopadhyay, the books give detailed pictures of the city during the 19860s and 1970s. The cover has been designed by Hiran Mitra.

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The city’s skyline started changing from the middle 1980s when many old buildings were pulled down to make room for high rises. Old localities, known as ‘paras’, disappeared. Earlier there were close connections among the local residents which became a thing of the past when the apartments came up.

There were localities which were associated with professions like jelepara, where the post of the inhabitants were fishermen, lattupara, where many residents made lattus (tops), kumarpara, where the residents made clay idols and so on.

Lattupara was situated close to Lady Dufferin Hospital on Amherst Street. Some residents used to manufacture lattu of different sizes and shapes. In the 1960s and 1970s lattu was very popular among boys.

Mr Mukhopadhyay speaks about the enthusiasm in the people over the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in 1961. A huge rally was taken out in the city with Satyajit Ray in the forefront and Debabrata Biswas singing Tagore songs.

Mahasay Mahesh Ghosh was a resident of Bihar, who used to run a private army and whose sole purpose was to punish the dacoits and other hoodlums who had unleashed a reign of terror in Bihar.

Ei Europe Ekhon penned by Hiran Singha Roy has given the readers a picture of present day Europe. Singha Roy, who retired as a senior banker, went to England four decades ago. A brilliant student of Economics, he stood first in the humanities group in Higher Secondary examination in 1965. He has studied the social condition prevailing in European society.