Visiting Sahitya Akademi and SAARC Textiles Exhibition over the weekend

This weekend was actually very eventful. We had already learnt that this saturday was the last day of the Sahitya Akademi books exhibition (cum sale) at Rabindra Bhawan, Ferozshah kotla Marg. It was a chilly morning and so it was a late rising day, still we got the best of it and were there around noon, 12:15 pm or so. I had already prepared a list of all the books which I felt good by names or which were award winners. Shikha spent good hour and half selecting books while I kept asking the fellow about the books in list. he was amused to see somebody with list and asking for books like "Cat on the Houseboat", "Bacchhon ne pakda chor", etc. Few of them were out of print. We got hold of more than two dozen books and the fella gave us some extra discount. So happily, at noon when Nanna said she is very hungry, we moved out of the exhibition area, but it was a good visit to that place. In general, they have a permanent sales outlet for the Sahitya Akademi books all year round over there on the first floor.
We definitely thought, we shall come back to this place and explore it more some other time.

Next, on Sunday, we casually went to Pragati Maidan, to see some Inside Outside Mega Show. As per the title, we know, it was a show about home furnishings, interior decorations, etc. but, we had some time in our hand, and what better place then Pragati maidan to spend it.
But, there was a surprise. Some SAARC Textile exhibition was going on there, we went inside strolling and started taking looks at the stalls. There were lots of fine rugs ( read expensive) from Afganistan and they were really good. Fantastic hand work, wall hangings, paintings from Bhutan and Nepal and shawls also were good. Some good soft toys from Sri lanka also. Nanna was also enjoying there, looking at things, while I spent time talking to people from Nepal, Bhutan, SriLanka about the things they have brought here and how has been there experience.
They were happy to be here. But, by the density of visitors on a warm Sunday afternoon,
it felt like, we need more promotion for SAARC exhibition like things.
But where did we spend the most time was Pakistan. The stalls from Pakistan had good stuff for the better half's. And so, there we spent two grand for two suit lengths for my better half. And I was happy to see her happy like that. We also saw a couple of people bargaining there like we usually do in Palika or Sarojini Nagar, and the exhibitor's looked very frustated by that. While talking to them , they mentioned, why some people would say we will only give Rs 40 for something of Rs 200. That is Delhi special I guess.
The IO Mega show, for which we went there, was kind of useless for us, so we spent not more than 5 min there. All in all, ITPO and Pragati Maidan are fantastic places to be.
Also we have the Auto Fair in Jan and World Book Fair in Feb lined up ahead.