Visit to 18th World Book Fair, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Well, another world book fair in Delhi, same location, Pragati Maidan. The last one we visited was last year in September, a little different one, named as Delhi Book Fair. This one, the World Book Fair is organized by the National Book Trust of India and in fact NBT organizes a lot of book fairs in India, from Goa to Jodhpur to Meghalaya and Assam, its trying to propagate the reading habit and trying to make the books available to one and all in all corners of the country.

Well, we thought, the earlier the better, so Saturday would be the first day. But as per Nannas wishes, we sailed towards the National Rail Museum on Saturday for a fantastic fun-filled day.

And so we were there at Pragati Maidan on Sunday , 3rd Feb 2008 and to our relief, it wasn't crowded at all. In any case, the book fairs are far less crowded than the Auto Fair.

Just for the stats, the Auto Fair had around 1.8 million visitors this year in Jan while this World Book Fair had less than 1.2 m. Well the numbers don't tell the whole story, this despite the fact that the ticket for book fair was just Rs 10/- each all seven days of the week, while the entry for Auto Fair was Rs 150/- for weekdays and Rs 300/- each for the weekends. Well, doesn't matter, am just trying to vent the disgrunt I have for this, as all these books available there such huge knowledge for anybody and everybody, but we are not able to understand the value of them in our lives.

So, this World Book Fair, wasn't any different from the earlier ones. This time, Russia was the Guest of Honor for this fair, so there were a lot of activities going outside hall # 7, some nukkad natak, or enacting a kids story from Russia to make people aware of the culture and life there. A drawing competition for the kids, the kids were drawing some unbelievable art and the whole wall, I think around 25-30 feet was covered with the paintings up to a height of 6 feet, so if you calculate, a lot of paintings.

So, we kept on roaming the Pragati Maidan, but Nanna was very tired, and it was tough for us to carry her and then freely browse the innumerable books there. How I wished, we had brought the stroller with us. But well, nothing can be done now. So, moving ahead, there were a few things in our list already, the first was, to buy a black board. And soon we reached there, and got a good black board, which on the other side is a white board. And it has already started coming to use at home, that I can't tell you.

Alright, there were a lot of publishers, which many of us know about. There are two which I found the most fantastic and new discovery kinds. One, Indus Publishing House, which specialises in the books of Himalayan terrain, be it the forest, wildlife, herbs and horticulture , trekking, rock climbing, natives, migrants, culture, festivals, life on mountains. It was an amazing collection they had. Earlier I already had a few books from the Outlook gallery on travel, but I think this is a class apart. Although I still have to read one from them, but the sheer collection is too good. In fact, now Outlook, has also started coming out with their own series of travel for many countries, after covering the whole of India. I also have subscribed to the "Outlook Traveler" magazine, and I like it very much, Marco is the best thing in it, if you know.
Second, was Parragon Publishing, they had some fantastic books on display, about oceans, history, science, polar regions, wildlife, Ferrari's, bikes and they were all with fantastic photographs. Something, which I highly appreciate in a book of information providing kinds, as it makes it readable for kids as well. I don't know their Indian outlet or website, but they mentioned and I have seen myself also, their books are generally available at all good book shops, Crossword, Om Books, Oxford Book Store, etc.

We got a few books from many different stalls and we are all set to go. It has been a good day, but somehow we missed the Stationery fair. We always like to go to Stationery fair, which is also on there along with the Book fair. When in US, you get good shops with everything related to stationery, and you like to go and shop there, but here its difficult to find any good stationery shop, which caters to all your requirements, so we wanted to visit it, but couldn't help. Although, I have recently heard, that Reliance has opened up a huge stationery shop in a Gurgaon mall, just like there Reliance Digital or Reliance Footprint and am looking forward to visit it soon.

I appreciate and applaud the National Book Trust for doing such good efforts.

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.