Book Fair 2016 - Another year another visit

Book Fair 2016 - International book Fair

It’s not seldom that one gets to view or be part of a news recently read in the papers. Over the period of my short life, as compared to many other generations before me, i have had the honour of being at the right place at the wrong time, many a times. The timing though yesterday could not have been better, for some minutes before or later i would have missed the group of cyclists, on the NH 24. What made them stand out wasn’t that it was a large group of people cycling together, or that they were dressed in apparels common to all, but what made them noticeable was the police escort under which they were travelling. For it was the sound of the siren that made me notice what was happening on the other side of the highway carriage. Recently i had read about a group of cyclists who had come from Nepal, through UP to Delhi, maybe it was them who were heading back to their source. What had interested me in the new were two things, one the cycling from Nepal, and other the route they took, it was almost a mix of politics and religion, the places they had visited. Gorakhpur, Patna, Gaya, Varanasi which were on the route for religious places of  importance, but Saifai? And Agra? Probably because they would have arrived using the only cycle-able route, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Delhi. That’s the route normally taken by anyone heading to eastern side of the state anyway. When i saw them, and since they were cycling on the NH 24 it seemed they would be returning through the other highway, the slightly northern one which goes through, Moradabad, Barielly, and maybe even head back into Nepal from Pilibhit side.

Here is the only link which i could find online mentioning something of their trip, Link. 

What further made me a part of history, wan’t the fact that i was heading to Delhi on just some day. I was travelling on the 13th. Not that it was the first time i had been out on Delhi’s roads on the day of lohri, but the fact that it was an odd date and i had odd numbered vehicle too. Odd, yes the even-odd we learnt in school. I was a part of the traffic during the experimental two weeks of odd - even rule as well. The Kejriwal government decided that it would reduce the traffic and pollution on Delhi’s roads, yes to some extent atleast the traffic is less, pollution i could not guarantee since i wasn’t the one carrying the proper scientific apparatus around. While heading into Delhi, even though i was travelling around 2 in the afternoon, the traffic did feel a lot less than what i had seen it to be in the previous years. I could see some rule breakers too, like this white scorpio travelling right ahead, but then who was i to point this out to?

The lines at the ticket window at Pragati Maidan weren’t that long, just around 5 or 6 people ahead of me, and the buying and entering was hardly an affair of 10 mins. There were some college students too, i assumed from their excitement about getting tickets on showing their id cards that they were here for the first time and it wasn’t only the books that had drawn them here. But then everyone had their own little motivations and plans for being someplace. Who was i to question their young desires? Moving ahead i caught a shuttle to the nearest hall. Even these shuttle to the respective halls weren’t that infrequent and crowded, i could easily gain a seat without any hustling, that is so characteristic of any fair at Pragati Maidan. Maybe the even odd rule and part fact that i had chose my visit on a working day mid of the week that to at noon worked somewhat in my favour of a quite roaming around in my own company. The book fair this year for some reason seemed alot more organised in the number of halls to be visited and presence of the publishers. Maybe subconsciously all the previous visits along these years were paying off or the fact that this one was the only visit in all the years that i was going alone too had something to do with it. I was alot more free in terms of making mistakes about going and retracting my steps, i wasn’t worried about walking an extra mile even if in the wrong direction. And a alot more than a mile i did walk. Once home, i checked on my steps i had taken for the complete day, and they were well over 10000. That’s more than 6 kms, and though all of it wasn’t by roaming in the fair, but atleast 4 out of those 6 were.

My visit began with the usual halls 8-11, which since time immemorial have been hosting the foreign publishers. That being the first step of the fair, i rounded up most of the biggies like, HarperCollins, PanMacmillan, Hachette, Oxford and others in their league. These were the ones most crowded, people thronging their aisles for their favourite books and hoping to catch the fair price bargains. The crowd was young and interested in books. Even though there were enough people to make the halls suffocatingly warm, walking wasn’t that tough. I was more interested in books and stalls which sell those rare books which can’t be found in the regular book shops, though it not did not prevent me from entering the popular stalls and talking down names of books being currently published on topics of my interest, which being politics, history and philosophy.  What i did notice was that there was a dearth of new topics, new books being published. I could still see books from 3 or 4 years backs being on the bestseller list, which says either something about our reading habits or good content missing from the shelves. Some new participants which i could see was those of the Speaking Tiger, and coincidently had finished a book of their publishing just a couple of days back, so the name too was quite fresh in the memory. They have an interesting collection at hand, and are printing some really nice stories from all parts of India. Here is the link with some more information incase anyone is interested in knowing more about them. Exiting from the international participants, i made my way to Hall 12, the one for Hindi publishers. My visit here was restricted to listening to authors in a couple of events and looking into a few stalls. The authors too had nothing new to add to what i already did not know about the publishing in hindi language, the declining readership and their commentaries on social issues plaguing our society since ancient times. I made my way towards the Hall 6, kind of escaping from what i thought was like the nature or most of our population. Escape from reality or problems of others which were not yet our own. All through the long walk i kept reflecting on various social evils in the society, which we choose to conveniently ignore in the safe havens of our homes.

Reaching Hall 6 was somewhat a change as this is where the smaller publishers and book stores have been aloted spaces. Here was where i expected to land a bargain and get some part of the treasure i had come looking for in the first place. I came across yet another new name, Niyogi books which i hadn’t registered on any of my previous visits. I wonder if we feed on what happens to be whetting our appetite in the near past, because i could see they had some really interesting titles in their collection. Here is a link incase you want to check out more about them. I finally struck gold at the stall of Sangeeta Books. They had the oldest collections of some of the rarest books. Books about which i hadn’t even heard of on most of the top e-sellers even. There was a clearing sale of sorts going on and every title was available at bargain prices. I spent the longest part of my visit there and when i had been satisfied that this well now had no more water for me, i made my way towards the highlight of the Book Fair this year, lugging around 7 kgs of prised possessions. I had even beaten 3 or 4 people to a title they could not help but envy me for being there at the right time, which was minutes before them.

Planning my exit strategy was easy, heading back towards hall 7 to cover the Guest country China’s exhibits and the showcase of India’s cultural past were next on my agenda. The history of printing in China has been very well exhibited and covered in great detail. It is peppered with lots of specimens on display, replicas of  rare books. Some of which i captured to be shared, most of it i just stood and soaked in the experience.   

 Once i had seen what our northern neighbour had to offer, i headed into my own past. A place which show cased India’s literary travels through the various ages. It is a nice setup, a full circular area, which starts with the southern india and ends on the eastern front. With books and arts from  each area displayed splendidly, i could do nothing but be mesmerised with what all there is to see in this land, and what a small part of life we spend trying to see it all, whatever little we see, we think we have seen everything.

I then moved on to bid adieu to a day spent well in the company of books and knowledge, both of which one can never have enough of, in my opinion. The drive back wasn’t easy, traffic was back on the road, it was later than 8 pm, the time limit for odd even rule had expired and so had space on roads. It took me about an hour or so to reach back home, a distance of around 17 kms in in one hour. But in this one day i had already travelled far and near, in theory, i had been to China and back and it had only taken me 2000 years or so.