The 20th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair which saw participation of over 1,300 Indian and foreign publishers concluded on Sunday. The New Delhi World Book Fair is organized after every two years by the National Book Trust, India. First held in 1972, this Fair has become biggest book-event in the Afro-Asian region. The last day of the book fair witnessed a huge crowd of book lovers. The nine day-long book fair, was inaugurated by Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal on 25 February 2012 and continued till 4th March 2012.

The Theme Pavilion which celebrated 100 years of Indian Cinema attracted a large number of book lovers as well as cine buffs. Many film and theatre personalities like Javed Akhtar, Farooq Sheikh, Amol Palekar, Satish Kaushik, Sushma Seth, Muzaffar Ali, Shahbaz Khan participated in panel discussions and other literary activities at the pavilion.

NBT in association with National Film Archive of India, Pune, under the section Literature that Walks, Talks and Sings screened some of the classic, black & white and colour movies like Devdas, Pather Panchali, Umrao Jaan, Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda among others at the Theme Pavilion. On the concluding day, three movies Charulata, directed by Shri Satyajit Ray, Uski Roti, directed by Mani Kaul and Athithi, directed by Shri Tapan Sinha were screened.

The Children’s Pavilion exhibited 1200 books in several languages and organized several activities for children. Activity based workshops Kabaad Se Jugaad and Aoo Jadoo Seekhein were organized. A skit based on a book was presented by the Rahein Development Society.

The new website of the National Book Trust, India was launched today by Shri M A Sikandar, Director, NBT. To celebrate 100 years of Delhi as the Capital of India, a special Delhi pavilion was put-up in which rare paintings and photographs on Delhi were exhibited. The Pavilion designed in a circular shape gave a rare glimpse of Delhi’s monuments, emperors from etc like Red Fort, Jama Masjid, etc by known and unknown artistes of erstwhile Delhi.

To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, a special pavilion on the great poet was dedicated at the Fair in which select books on and by Tagore as well as posters, sketches and paintings of Tagore were exhibited. The Pavilion was put-up by the Sahitya Akademi.

During the fair many books were also released like Bajanama by Shri A N Sharma, Bahudha and Post 9/11 World by Shri Balmiki Prasad Singh, NBT Catalogue in CD Format, My World Within by Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development, Jauhar-E-Adakaari by Shri Latafat Hussain Kazi, Urdu Aur Bollywood by Shri Suhail Akhtar Warsi, Bhartiya Samaj: Rashtravaad Aur Premchand by Shri Jitendra Srivastava, Bye-Bye by Shri Krishna Bihari, Bhupen Da: The Bard of Brahmaputra by Kamal Kataky and Devajit Bhuyan, Indira Goswami: Pain and Passion edited by Uddipana Goswami, Never Let Me Go by Sachin Garg, Aurat Ki Awaaz by Nasira Sharma, Katha Circus by Prash Manu, Kiska Hai Asmaan by Savita Bhargav, Gudia Bhittar Gudia by Maitreyi Pushpa etc.

Many interesting features like interactive kiosks stationed at various spots in all the halls to facilitate visitors to get information about publishers, Hall and Stall numbers etc and the Souvenir Shops with slogans on books inscribed on coffee-mugs, T-shirts, fridge magnets and caps were major hit among people, especially young.

To make the fair more interesting and entertaining, several cultural programmes in evening were organized by Sahitya Kala Parishad at Lal Chowk. The last day of the fair was dedicated to the folk-dances and folk-songs of Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra.

Related Posts