Give them good memories to find strength from!

PREFACE

A Preface is placed first, written last and read last.

Here, in this report, I’ve made an attempt to collect the required information, edit them carefully, arrange it in a sequential and meaningful manner while presenting it creatively on the topic ‘Chennai Book Fair 2019'.

Hope you like it.

Thank you.

Location.

A taxi ride of 50 minutes from Anandapuram in East Tambaram that would cost you somewhere around Rupees 198 if it is Ola and then also, a kilometer’s walk inside the gate was the Y. M. C. A. Pavilion in Nandanam that hosted the 2019 Chennai Book Fair.

Crowd Present.

12th of January, 2019.

I reached the location at 10:30, not because I was not aware of the timing that is 11:00 but because I have O. C. D. And the neurons in my brain are always bursting into a loud choir singing ‘Hallelujah’ except with the words ‘On time is late.’ but let’s leave that topic for discussion some other time, most preferably never.

Although I was early, there was still a long line in front of the ticket counter and by the time I finished walking through the entire fair, which is constituted of 8 columns that took two hours of my life and also, some of my body fat, the crowd was big enough for you to smell the perfume of the person next to you or worse body odor.

Top Five Stalls.

Somewhere around the second column I was suddenly hit by a truck of Philosophy related book stalls in Parimal Publications. Soon after, I reached the Book World’s stall and saw this collection of not just Haruki Murakami’s works but also, Kazuo Ishiguro’s works and I think that that was the moment when my eyes started tearing up when I realized that how unfortunate it is to be born in a family that is financially doing well and not great. The struggles of a self-centered teenager is real!

Now when you are in a Book Fair with no money with you and with the sole aim of completing your English Assignment, you start walking faster and stop at only those stalls that can pull some of the remaining few dried up and for most part of it – dead emotional heartstrings of your heart. The entire column of Goosebumps collection in the Scholastic Publication Stalls, Amar Chitra Katha stall and that stall that was selling Bestsellers for just Rupees 100 whose name I don’t remember because I was too busy drooling all over it, was just it.

Then, there was Oxford University Press that every pretentious and actual Philosophy student like alike, Osho Glimpse, Penguin Publications who have published so many great books but all I could remember is how they were on the verge of bankruptcy because no one reads anymore in the Bojack Horseman Show et cetera, were the few of my favorite amidst many others.

Unique Stalls.

What actually fascinated me were not Stalls related to the books but the beautiful Carina Yellow bus of the Lions Blood Bank, the food stalls that looks so temptingly delicious but serve horrible food inside (about which you are probably already aware due to my classmate Monica’s assignment), a stall with no name that had so many telescopes that no customer went there because in all fairness, believing in a flat earth or planet is more convenient than the actual reality, the stall filled with work related to B. R. Ambedkar that also had various sculptures of him with such scary hollow eyes that I just took the photo for the sake of the assignment and ran away and Notion Press Media’s stall, especially, with that wall full of writers that inspire young writers to publish their work as well. Not to forget the Kraftoons stall that had Olaf (from Frozen) on their front desk that almost made me call my mom and sing ‘Do you want to build a snowman? Then, kindly send me some money!’ but the biggest fascination for me was the store outside in the street (not part of Book Fair 2019) that had the entire, although worn out, collection of the Moscow trials.

The Plus With the Minus.

The only positive that I could remember from the Book Fair was the overwhelmingly large number of books available.

Now, when everyone around you has always despised you for having a strong personality and you also enjoy insult comedy, noticing the negatives become very easy.

When they say that one should drink a lot of water what they don’t tell you is how it will urge one’s body to urinate every other hour. On my arrival, the first thing that I wanted to do was pee and the moment I entered the bathroom, it was as if I was in the real life version of the ‘Goosebumps ‘ book because there were no flush, no mirror with the added bonus of cobwebs that had spiders as large as your palm all over it. If you are hosting an event on such a big scale, at least you should put in some effort in the bathrooms.

Guest Speaker and the Message.

My plan originally was to go with two of my friends who being as sweet as they are cancelled the plan thirty minutes before we were supposed to leave. Now, if you know me you would know that by that time I was completely dressed. Since, I had an assignment to complete, I decided to go on my own. The second worst decision of my life, the first one of course being the decision to come out of my mother’s womb into this dying planet alive.

Some thirty minutes after my arrival there, some red uniform schoolboys started following me and saying things like “Headphones azag!” I started walking fast and I thought that I had lost them when some blue uniform schoolboys started teasing me the same. So, in order to lose them I went to the third column, only to find the red uniform schoolboys waiting for me like Lord Voldemort did for Harry Potter in Deathly Hallows Part 2. I started walking as fast as I could, clicking away but after a few columns it was all well and good again, as the kids left the moment an uncle started creepily following me.

I was terribly scared that I booked an Ola right away, went to a nearby restaurant and ate till I cried my eyeballs out but the staff there was so kind that they made me sit in one corner comfortably and took care of me like Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

It was only after I finished my meal that I realized that I forgot to attend or even search about the Guest Speaker session. By that time, my legs had no strength and my body was shaking uncontrollably due to excessive crying to go back to that place.

Lesson Learned.

What I learned from Chennai Book Fair 2019 is that no matter how many times you have travelled alone, no matter how many battles you have conquered alone or for that matter no matter how many times you have been eve teased, you still cannot be numb to such an inhumane behavior. There is no manual on this planet that can ever prepare you for this. Most importantly, you could be mentally strong enough to just shed a few tears and shake it off but what if there is someone else who is not as strong as you are mentally and would end up taking home with them a traumatic experience, instead. It is our responsibility to be like the staff members, to be like Winnie the Pooh and his friends and help those who need it. Be there for them and increase the number of good people in their life.

Give them good memories to find strength from!

CONCLUSION.

I have tried to the best of my abilities to present the content in the most honest and apt manner but if I committed any mistakes, I would hereby like to apologise for it.

Hope you liked my point of view of the Chennai Book Fair 2019 and found it as exhilarating while reading as I did typing.

Thank you.

- Megha Liz Varghese