Daya Dissanayake
Bilingual Writer & Poet
Galle, Sri Lanka
Every year he
dreamt of visiting
Kolkata boi mela
he checked air
fares
train fares
and made his travel
plans.
This year
he saved a little
money
to buy all the
books he could
at the
international book fair
in his own home
city.
First day he would
look at all the books
next day he could
select the books he wanted
on the third day
buy what he could
with the money he
had saved.
SARS-CoV-2
pandemic panic
shattered his
dreams.
With the money he
saved
he bought food
for a few starving
children
whose parents had
lost their daily earnings.
He discovered
the Vishva Boi Mela
in cyberspace
where he could read
for free
enough books
to last several
lifetimes
and meet
the writers and
readers
from around the
world
always
at any time.