The Chinese pavillion at the ongoing book fair is giving visitors a glimpse of the origin and evolution of printing through a detailed exhibition, explaining its ties with India. Shrabasti Mallik took a tour and came across some interesting things to watch out for
The whiff of new books, the soft cracking of the paper back cover, a group of people pouring over a pile of books and enthusiastic kids skeltering around trying to decide between a Chhota Bheem comic or batman. Yes, the World Book Fair is here.
like every year, there are many things that are new and different, with every major publishing house in the country trying to get the largest footfall. This year, however, along with the wide array of displayed books, we came across a few other details that might just perk your interests about the ongoing fair.
Interactive decor
Walk past Hachette and you just might take a step back because this publishing house has gone all out in bringing the Hulk to life. The stall is quite big but at the entrance there is a life size cardboard cut out of the hulk trying to prevent books from falling over each other. Since this Avenger is not that scary, you might as well take a picture with him.
Have you ever seen the cover of the ‘For Dummies’ book seriesIJ If you have, then you will recall the face of a cartoon — round eyed, cone-shaped face with spiky hair. Well, if you are lucky you might just find him on his timely rounds.
We came across another stall, Young Angel, designed like a princess castle, with purple towers and pink caps. The representative from the store said, “Children now are very visual and these set ups help in generating their interests.”
Off the track
We all have faced problems while preparing a project report for our academic semesters. But then we had libraries, encyclopedias and, later, the Internet. We came across a small stall called Project Reports and Kumar Gulshan, the owner, explained to us that it was not a solution for school and college students but for people who want detailed information on an industrial sector. “We make detailed reports from different sectors of a number of industries to help someone looking to establish a start up. like if you want the laws, restrictions that the Government has imposed on any given industry or bank loan details, we make detailed reports so that it becomes easy for our clients,” said Gulshan who covers industries like electrical, bicycle,packaging, chemicals and automobile industry. Each report is priced at Rs1,000 but at the fair you can get get them at Rs500.
On a foreign note
The star attraction of the Foreign Pavilon was the the Guest of Honour country, China. There is more to the pavilion than just books and a space for seminars and decisions. There is an entire exhibition area dedicated to the depiction of the origin and evolution of printing and civiliastion. It was titled Renaissance of Civilisation: Understanding through exchange. A spokesperson explained that it is the country’s attempt to make people familiar with the invention of paper making and movable type printing. “Through their hard work they made possible to pass forward the rich, profound Chinese culture, promote it and exchange it with other countries,” he said. What’s more, you can also get your name written in Chinese letters.
last year, books at the Pakistan pavillion sold out like hot cakes owing to the book based on the stories from shows on channel Zindagi. This time we found JNU students looking for books. Yasmin Jashidi told us that she asks the publisher to get Urdu works of Nasir Abbas Nayyar because his theoretical works on post colonialism are not available here. “Some of these books are only printed in Pakistan and we cannot go to there just to buy. So we ask him to get us these books because we need them for our research,” she added.
These are just a few things we came across and there are more to explore and see in the book fair in the days to come. There will be book reading sessions, book launches and a host of cultural activities and dance performances to look out for.