The guests of honour, India's ace chess champion Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, well-known film personality Pallavi Chatterjee and Director of publishing house Patrabharati, Tridib Chatterjee, had no qualms about admitting how frightened they are of ghosts, much to the amusement of the audience.

 

Pallavi Chatterjee's experience at Bolpur during a film shoot, and how she duped the technicians to spend the night with them in the terrace and then served tea to the unit at 4ambecause she did not want to spend the night alone in a supposedly haunted room, left everyone in splits.

 

Barua said that even though he has travelled around the world, he was never comfortable staying alone in a room and if he had to, he always left the lights on.

 

"I used to read various types of books from a young age but accounts or stories related to supernatural and paranormal activities attracted me more," said author Debasish Chaudhury. 

 

Attached to the printing and packaging industry, Chaudhury has travelled in India and abroad as a student and a working professional and was befriended by many people.

 

While talking to his friends and acquaintances, Chaudhury acquired a wealth of 'supernatural' stories, which he finally decided to write down along with his own experiences.

 

The book Oparthibo, which roughly translated means 'unearthly', is a collection of 14 experiences that cannot be explained by any rational process.

 

What distinguishes Oparthibo from other books of its genre is that the stories are thought-provoking rather than gory descriptions usually found in ghost stories. The author has made no attempt to be judgemental but narrated the incidents as they were narrated to him, thus giving the readers the freedom to accept or reject the stories. 

 

The book, published by Patra Bharati and priced Rs 100, is available at all STORY outlets.

 

 

STORY at Elgin Road, Kolkata, is eastern India's largest standalone bookstore and a leisure destination. An initiative from the Primarc Group, the Elgin Road outlet covers an area of 15,000 sq feet. It has a massive collection of books of all genres and a dedicated floor for children. The best basket of collectible pens and writing accessories is available in the Pen and Ink section while the Art Street section offers art material and accessories. The Gift it! section has bountiful of special gift items, the Greetings section boasts of a wide range of all reasons greeting cards whereas the Papershop & Stationery section has a comprehensive range of house paper and stationery material of different kinds. There are a total of four STORY outlets in West Bengal. Besides Elgin Road, they are at Diamond Plaza Mall (Nageer Bazar, Kolkata) Avani River Side Mall (Howrah) and Junction Mall (Durgapur). 

Images: Launch of Bengali book Oparthibo at STORY in south Kolkata