Hindi fares well at the Book Fair

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They brought books on Anna, but ironically it was Anna who took the limelight away. The opening day of the Delhi Book Fair at Pragati Maidan drew a lukewarm response, and publishers who had dotted pathways leading to the hall with posters of books on Anna Hazare expecting the social worker’s popularity to sweep the sales, were left disappointed because all roads in the capital led to Ramlila Grounds this weekend.
Assuring that there’s no cause for concern over the lack of crowds at the fair, V. K. Gauba, officer on special duty, at ITPO, said, “The footfall takes time to pick up. It’s a 9-day-long fair and we’ve seen in the past that the last few days have had the highest turnout. So we can expect the usual packed halls by the next weekend.”
While the focus this year will be on travel and tourism, participants also inform that alongwith English and Hindi, a sizeable percentage of books were in other 16 official languages. Raghuvir Verma of Prabhat Prakashan, says, “The 10 top selling Hindi publishers are regulars (at the fair), but vernacular languages like Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, have caught up. In fact a lot many visitors come looking for these languages and foreign stalls as well.”
Parth Kumar, Class 4 student of Vivekanand School, Vivek Vihar, was busy looking for Hindi versions of Anne Frank’s Diary and Ruskin Bond’s Rusty series. “They have a little problem following their favourite author JK Rowling in English and certain terms need to be explained. But the novels in Hindi are a breeze,” informs his mother.
Publishers are also looking at a seminar titled “Corruption: Different Dimension” organised by the Authors Guild of India as a potential crowd-puller. Also on cards is a seminar on folktales Ghummakad Lok Katha for children by the Bachpan Society for Children’s Literature. And to bring in the school children during weekdays sessions like “Discover the Genius in Your Child,” “How to Study Intelligently” will be held.
Stalls selling mythology too saw a comparatively substantial build up. Satyendra Dhar, who was at the Geeta Press stall, said, “English bookstores have sprung up at malls and cafes, but you have to go looking for the religious ones.” Seconds Ashwani Kumar, of Oxford University Press, “A feeling of nationalism that has swept the country could also be behind this resuscitation of Hindi. A sense of belonging makes you go back to nationalist, patriotic literature and popular Hindi classics.”
On at the Pragati Maidan till September 4.