Lucknow book fair--Where nostalgia meets anime fantasy

People of all ages thronged the 10-day-long fair on its day 1 on Friday. It is being organised at Ravindralaya Ground with G20 as its theme, and was inaugurated by Babu Ram Ji Das, a senior advocate.

From the 90s comics published by Amar Chitra Katha, which many millennials relate to even today, to books that capture children and youngsters’ imagination in a jiffy, a section of the 10th Annual Lucknow Book Fair offers it all.

A stall dedicated to creating newspaper reading as a habit among children, at the Lucknow annual book fair on Friday (HT)

People of all ages thronged the 10-day-long fair on its day 1 on Friday. It is being organised at Ravindralaya Ground with G20 as its theme, and was inaugurated by Babu Ram Ji Das, a senior advocate.

“Amar Chitra Katha’s comics and graphic novels, that were based on religious legends and epics, historical figures and folktales, have always been close to the people from 90s, especially those who were in their teenage years in that period. These books will give a nostalgic connect to book lovers coming here,” said Manoj Singh Chandel, the fair organiser.

“One of the stalls here is dedicated to anime books. This stall will attract many youngsters as anime is a trending subject,” said UP Tiwari, another organiser and founder of Vishwam Foundation.

Anime (Japanese hand-drawn or computer animation) books such as Demon Slayer, Spy Family, Tokyo Ghoul and Chainsawman are the most-sold books at the stall. Pranjal Sisodia, a visitor, said, “I’m a huge fan of anime. I was trying to find books of this genre online but most of them were unavailable. I’m glad I can buy them here at a very affordable rate.”

As many as 29 publishing houses have set up over 60 stalls at the fair. A stage has also been put up for cultural activities on G20 themes.

Newspaper for kids

In order to develop newspaper reading as a habit among school-goers, a city woman has set up the stall of a Delhi-based children’s newspaper agency, ‘The Junior Age’.

Lucknow-born Divyata Shergill, a lawyer by profession and the mother of a seven-year-old, launched the fortnightly when her daughter started asking questions about newspapers. “Newspapers are difficult to understand for children. With this newspaper, we try to educate kids about Republic Day, Independence Day, the Indian constitution, Women’s Day and the likes. We also publish children’s arts,” said Priyamvada Budhalakoti, the editor of the eight-month-old newspaper.

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Image Cap 2: Pranjal Sisodia, a visitor at the anime book stall