Bibliophiles have thronged New Delhi World Book Fair, breaking all footfall records. Over one lakh people have visited the ongoing nine day-long literary extravaganza. The theme for this year’s event is Manushi, which is focussing on writings on and by women. The theme Pavilion at the fair is attracting a lot of booklovers. The pavilion is displaying writings on and by women in different genres like poems, novels, children’s literature, etc. The posters give a glimpse of women writers of different Indian languages who have made major contributions in the field of literature including Dr Pratibha Ray, Mahasweta Devi, lily Ray, Mridula Garg, Kanakalata Barua, Ashapoorna Devi.
In the morning, Meet the Author and Reading Session was organised by Punjabi Akademi (Delhi) in which Chandan Negi, well-known Punjabi author shared her journey as a writer with book lovers; and Sukhwinder Kaur recited her poems in Punjabi. later, a poets’ meet was also organised. In this meet, litterateurs Nirupama Sinha, Anita Maheshwari, Saroj Singh, Dr Nirmala Singh, Dr Anita Singh, Sandhya Singh, Manoj Shukla among others participated. A performance based on saint poet Meerabai by Meenu Thakur and troupe from Delhi was also organised. In the evening a discussion on women writings was organised in which Dr Avanijesh Awasthi, Dr Shashi Prabha Tiwari and Dr Krishna Sharma.
Besides, a number of discussions, book release and meet the author programmes were organised during the day across the Fair.
Children’s Pavilion is again a different world of magic and mysteries to mesmerise the children and adults alike. Syeda Hameed and Kamla Bhasin, both are writers, unveiled the Bharat Mata Ka Paanch Roop originally written by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas to the children. The programme was organised by Pratham Books.
An illustrator of children’s books, Atanu Roy engaged the children in an illustration workshop under the banner A Brush with Creativity. Children were asked to draw a monster and they came with really frightening drawings of monsters. Children of all age group in large number participated and enjoyed the workshop.
A quiz competition was organised by National Monuments Authority under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Children were asked questions like: The biggest discovery of early man, ancient name of Delhi, Who wrote Panchatantra etc.
The students of Nidhi Public School, Faridabad, enacted a play let’s Know our Solar System. The children weaved the story around facts and introduced each planet with their special characteristics. The main focus was to save the earth and its overall environment for our own existence.
An interactive storytelling session World of Stories was conducted by Payal Chaudhary a freelance storyteller. She narrated the story of how the Ganga came on earth and the important role it plays in our everyday life. The children were deeply involved with the style and presentation of the story.