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Silence… Pune will be reading on December 9
With citywide campaign, Pune Book Festival is eyeing a world record for largest number of people reading at same time
PUNE: The ‘Pune Book Festival’, now widely regarded as a people’s festival, is gearing up to take its reading movement to a global platform. As part of its endeavour to position Pune as the ‘Book Capital of India’, a citywide campaign titled ‘Silence… Pune is Reading’ will be held on December 9 with the aim of setting a world record for the largest number of people reading at the same time.
The call to join the initiative has been jointly issued by the Pune Book Festival and National Book Trust (NBT). The organising committee expects more than five lakh citizens from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad to participate.
The reading hour will be observed between 11 am and 12 noon, inviting people across all ages, professions and locations to press pause on whatever they might be doing and read a book of their choice for the elected one hour. Students, teachers, professors, government and private sector employees, social organisations, public representatives, vice-chancellors, doctors, lawyers, journalists, writers and literature enthusiasts among others are expected to participate. Public spaces across the city — schools, colleges, universities, libraries, reading rooms, religious centres, government offices, private workplaces, bus stands and railway stations — will turn into reading zones for the chosen hour.
To be officially counted as part of the world record attempt, participants must upload a photo of themselves reading on photoupload.pbf25.in or through the QR code provided by the organisers. Additional details are available on the Pune Book Festival’s social media platforms.
The ‘Silence… Pune is Reading’ campaign has received strong support from major city institutions, including the higher and technical education department, district administration, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Samarth Yuva Foundation.
District collector Jitendra Dudi and municipal commissioner Naval Kishore Ram have appealed to citizens to join the reading hour and support Pune’s bid to be recognised as a global reading capital.
Meanwhile, the Pune Book Festival, organised by the NBT, will take place at the Fergusson College grounds from December 13 to 21. The festival has expanded significantly this year and is now the second-largest book festival in India, featuring more than 800 stalls.
Chief coordinator of the Pune Book Festival, Rajesh Pande, underscored the initiative’s objective. “The Pune Book Festival has truly become a festival of the people. With its scale expanding to over 800 stalls, it now ranks as the second-largest book festival in India. This year, through ‘Silence… Pune is Reading’, we aim to create a world record. We appeal to every Punekar to participate, read a book of their choice, and strengthen the reading movement. This is an opportunity to place Pune firmly on the world map as the Book Capital,” he said.
The organising committee, including Fergusson College principal Sanjay Chakane, has urged citizens to follow the festival’s social media pages for updates and participate wholeheartedly in the ‘Silence… Pune is Reading’ campaign.
As Pune prepares for this unique celebration, the city is set to send out a strong message in favour of the enduring habit of reading in these times of instant gratification.
