Yesterday we spent the whole day at the international book fair. It was heartening to see people from all ages and all walks of life engrossed in browsing and buying books. A lot of selfie points everywhere. People jostling to take ‘we were here’ photos. A lot of selfie points everywhere. People jostling to take photos with their kids. The Kashmir and Ladakh exhibit seemed popular for selfies rather than the display, unfortunately.

The exhibit was well done with respect to the information and the quality of display.
Would have been better off without the moving spotlights though

But then we also saw parents flocking to the children’s books section with their kids, young people’s excited chitchat about books they found, during our lunch break, we saw a kid browsing the book they bought.

People were also engaging with the interactive activities some stalls had set up as well as with street plays, and formal discussion forums. The interactive wall outside a stall got a lot of action. Many interesting quotes, names of books that changed people’s lives, with the usual spattering of ‘I love Madhu’

I was surprised to see pavillions from other countries. UAE and Turkey made a commendable effort to make it educational. Iran had books for sale. We got 2 about India during the British Raj. Very interesting to read about historical events from their perspective.

The author’s pavillion had interesting panels depicting timeline of major literary works as well as bios of well known authors and linguists.

This was the only place the multilingual India was visible in addition to the decorative posters. The books or stalls of other languages were missing. Although, there was a lot of advertising about Bahubhashi Bharat everywhere, the collection did not quite reflect it.
It was more of a selfie point. I hope this sentiment is actually put in practice.