'Book fests certainly make you humble no matter who you are!'

‘CHENNAI BOOK FAIR 2019’ - A Report

Hisham Mohamed , II MA English

The ‘Chennai Book Fair 2019’ turned out to be my second consecutive visit to a book exhibition in back to back years. This may not seem that much of a thing that is worth mentioning, but then the fact that I spent all the days of my schooling either in Riyadh or in Madurai made it harder for me to have frequent visits to such places.

Chennai has really opened up a whole new world for me to explore and learn new things and being a student of literature only makes it even more exciting. I, personally am not a hardcore reader of books but I love to write, which obviously demands a lot of reading. 

This is why I feel I haven’t read a book from cover-to-cover but rather a few pages of a lot of books that really interests me through the kinds of words being used or the way in which the author views certain things in a completely different manner.

Now, being a student of literature for almost 5 years, a lot of professors have influenced me to read but none more than Dr. Samuel Rufus and it goes without saying that no matter how life leads me from here, into my future, I definitely owe him a lot. Even though I couldn’t read books apart from a few prescribed ones as in these 5 years, I have definitely developed the thirst for books and knowledge and that for me is the greatest positive that I could take from this M.A. course.

I may have left it a little too late, had I not visited the book fair on the 19th of January along with my sister, who is also a student of literature, doing her bachelor’s degree in Stella Maris College. The entire road leading to the YMCA grounds was filled with heavy traffic and the street vendors who sold used books, only added to the slowing down of traffic even further.

My sister and I had to get down from the car and walk quite a bit to enter into the campus, in order to escape the delay caused by the unusually busy road. We both were thrilled when we had our first sight of the parking area, which was almost full and understandably so, since it was the last day of the fair. It was indeed heartening to see people crowded to seek knowledge. The hot and humid condition could’ve been overcome with a centralized AC facility which I thought would improve the next year’s book fair.

Book fests certainly make you humble no matter who you are and that I think is one among the many perks of being a student of literature, i.e. no matter how much ever you know, you still realise that you’ve a lot to learn. Students, professors, teachers, readers, writers, business men, techies all fell under the same roof in the book fair, which by itself conveyed a huge message for any of us to take. Book stalls ranging from medicine, cookery, technology to literature, religion and culture were all spread out for us to go and explore.

One crucial thing that I realised from the visit was that it was important for me to take someone who was actually a bookworm, so that he/she can suggest me books that may perhaps be closer to my area of interest. Myself being not that much of a bookaholic and my sister still trying to find her feet in the vast field of literature, I felt it would’ve been even more apt to take a friend along with us to give us leads.

I also met Mr. Syed Ahmed sir, who was one of my professors in my UG course which I did in The New College. This, I thought was another huge advantage of going to such places, where you get to meet new people and also people who might have played a crucial role in your life. My sister and I, bought around 6-7 books, including Wonder, I am Malala, A Brief History of Time, Mein Kampf, English Literature for Competitive Examinations, Rich Dad Poor Dad. I opted to buy Hitler’s autobiography in order to get a clearer understanding of Germany’s perspective at the time of World War-I and with an aim of relating it to the literary history and literary movements that prevailed at that point of time. As for Stephen Hawking’s book, one of my professors urged me to buy it stating that it would definitely suit my interest. Malala Yousafzai and R.J. Palacio’s books were my sister’s picks, which she says were the recommendations of her friends in college.

I also bought a few DVDs dealing with software such as Adobe Photoshop, Premier, etc. to improve my skills in fields other than literature as well and even more so because I have a keen interest towards video editing and content creation and I am sure these materials would definitely be of great use.

The Book fest would certainly transform not just me, but anybody for that matter, and frequent visits to exhibitions like these and libraries can only make someone humble and more understanding of the world and different people that one might come across in his/her life.

The book Wonder by R.J. Palacio primarily deals with a boy who was born with a facial difference that had prevented him from going to a mainstream school.

I am really excited to start reading the book, (now that I’m done with my thesis) and look at the work from different theories and perspectives that I’ve learnt thus far.