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National Book Fair offers ‘out of the box’ collection for bibliophiles
Collection of Hindi books more diverse; rare books, some printed about 50 years back and older, can also be found at various stalls
LUCKNOW The National Book Fair opened its doors for bibliophiles amid rainfall in the city on Friday. A dance drama on the Kakori Train Action marked day one of the fair that will continue till October 6 from 11am to 9pm daily.
This year, the collection of Hindi books was more diverse than in English. However, from self-help, spiritual books to titles related to events like Emergency and Gandhi’s assassination - everything came under one roof.
At one stall, visitors can get as many books they can fit into a box. And for this, there are three boxes costing ₹999,1999 and 2999 each based on size. This set-up was made functional by a book seller ‘e local’.
Rare books, some printed about 50 years back and older, can also be found at various stalls in the fair. These include – Freedom at the Midnight, Everyman’s Library, Lev Tolstoy (as published in Moscow) and This is Kashmir.
The titles in Hindi written by a range of authors like Pash, Mahashweta Devi, Mahadevi Verma, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, Premchand, Harishankar Parsai, Shivram Sharma Acharya are widely available.
“We have translated versions of Shashi Tharoor in Hindi, and at the same time there is an entire collection of ‘Manto’ in different volumes. Shayari, books on women and Dalit politics are also available,” said Atul Maheshwari, a representative of Vaani publication.
Pankaj Gambhir, a seller from Delhi, said books related to LGBTQAI+ and culture related books were among the new arrivals at his stall.
Another seller, Saurabh Pal, said while he had been bringing titles of famous authors every year, he also had a good collection for children. “When everybody is struggling to cut down their child’s screen time, we have books related to different types of puzzles, crosswords and sets of books by famous authors like Ruskin Bond and Roald Dahl,” he said.
