The last day of the World Book Fair saw a huge rush of young and old crowd thronging the fair grounds to buy their favourite books as the 28th edition of this festival came to an end. The nine-day fair saw a footfall of more than ten lakh people in the fair grounds. Amidst all this rush, many programmes were also held at Pragati Maidan.
On the concluding day, a play in Maithili language, Ek Muthia, written by Dr Usha Kiran Khan was performed by Prakash Jha and his group. The play revolves around establishment of Gandhi Ashram at Darbhanga in 1919. The programme was organised by Maithili Machaanand National Book Trust, India.
A discussion on the book, Diabetes with Delight, authored by Dr Anoop Mishra was also organised by Bloomsbury Publishing at the author’s corner. Moderated by Praveen Mishra, the other speakers on the were Alok Mehta, Satyadev Pachauri and Suman Kumar. Alok Mehta remarked that this book is a primer which contains all the information that any patient of diabetes will ever need. Dr Anoop Mishra said that he has tried to fill the gaps and voids of the problem of diabetes that people face by providing extra information that will help in rarest situations.
A discussion on “Historical and Mythological Fiction” was organised by Readomania. Moderated by Dipankar Mukherjee, the other panelists on the occasion included Sutapa Basu and Pranab Mullick, well known authors of historical and mythological fiction. Talking about her book Padmavati, Sutapa said she did extensive research on the queen of Chittorgarh. She further said that Padmavati’s thoughts and teachings are immortal. Pranav Mullick focusing on his book From Kanha to Krishna, said that Lord Krishna took a form of a human being and destined his journey to kill Kansa. He added that he has been entrapped by many mythological loops and queries and looks forward to writing more exciting books.
A session on “Women’s writing” was also organised. The discussion focussed on the emergence of feminism in India. The speakers talked about the struggles that women face while making important decisions in their lives. On this occasion, women writers, Dr Harshali Singh, Anupama Jain and Tripti Sharan interacted with the visitors and shared their views on women writings.
A storytelling session on “The Little Girl” was organised at the Children’s Pavilion. Vikas Dave and Manjri Shukla interacted with the children and narrated interesting stories. Through them, they tried to highlight the struggles that a girl child often faces.
A skit on “Pradushanki Samasya,” was organised by Chetna India. The event began with Rishabh, a student affiliated to Chetna India singing a traditional folk song, while Pulkit Jain narrated a story. The play revolved around the initiatives that can be taken to reduce pollution, for example, by not burning the materials that causes pollution. Yashpal recited a poem, giving the message of planting trees.
Props are interesting, so are the stories. Hence Nidhi Kundra from Jiwan Books made both of them come together in a storytelling session at the Children’s Pavilion. She called upon children from the audience to play the characters of a story. The masked kids portrayed the characters well and made the session enjoyable for the rest of the kids too.
A young poets’ meet was organised by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Wonderroom. Pratul Vashist said that children can express their views and thoughts through poems. Young kids expressed themselves by reading out poems on childhood, stars, nature and other various topics.
A book release programme was organised by Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at the Lekhak Manch. Seven books including Banarsi Thumri ki Parampara Mein Thumri Gaikaon ki Chaunotiyan Aur Uplabhdiya, by Jyoti Singh; Approach to Conservation and Restoration Specific Focus on Cultural Heritage of Shimla by Somya Sharma; Al-Kindi and His Creation by Vijay Shankar Sharma, Himalayan Language by J C Sharma among others, were released on the occasion. The release was followed by discussion.