BOOK FAIR 2017
Aiswarya Susan Samuel, 2nd MA English
In this era of booming technology, books
are gradually going into the process of getting the status of ‘old’. But one
can never forget that old is ever golden. There is something lost when one
shifts from a pen to a number of keys on keyboard. Today there is less effort
taken in reading as the reader has to just scroll down the pages rather than
turn it over one by one. The reader does not feel the pages by sitting glued to
the screen. The satisfaction of completing the pages by counting it again and
again is never felt in reading e-books.
The 40th Chennai Book Fair
was a wonderful experience. The sight of the books itself could bring an ardent
lover of books to a state of exhilaration. The excitement I had is beyond words
as it was after a long time I got a chance to be again in a magical world of
books. The array of books was attractive that I could not help stopping by to
enjoy the beauty of it. Each stall was colourful and beautiful in its own way. There
was a wide range of books belonging to different fields such as literature, history,
science, general knowledge, psychology, philosophy, economics and so on. There
were also stalls for regional language books.
There were second hand book shops that
really helped students to purchase books that they loved at lower rates. Having
spent some time with my friends at the book fair, I found that it was difficult
for any visitor to go without buying a book. Expensive books just went into the
‘wish list’ while lower price books went in exchange of cash.
There was a joy that I felt on seeing
‘Tinkle’ and ‘Amar Chitra katha’ story books which took me back to my childhood
days. Some characters and stories are still fresh in my memory. I was also very
happy to see copies of some of the favorite books in my personal collection
arranged in the book shops.
The crowd there was a proof for the
fact that love for books is not dead. The book fair gave an invitation into its
world to all those who were busy in the technological world. It was an
invaluable time spent there and if at all the memory of the roll call bell in
the hall hadn’t haunted me, I could have stayed longer to explore the magic in
all the book shops.
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