Urdu fans miss the fare

THE URDU-READERS are in for disappointment at the National Book Fair that commenced in the city on Friday. The stalls put up in the last two years by Nadwatul Ulama and the Urdu Akadami are missing and so also is the stall put up by publishers from Pakistan vending rare books.

THE URDU-READERS are in for disappointment at the National Book Fair that commenced in the city on Friday. The stalls put up in the last two years by Nadwatul Ulama and the Urdu Akadami are missing and so also is the stall put up by publishers from Pakistan vending rare books. The fair, however, is not absolutely Urdu-less and the stall put up Urdu council is there but only to offer dictionaries and other such fictional books which may not make up for the loss of books that the missing vendors would have offered.

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“The Nadwa Rector was not in town so there was no decision on our offer to them to put up a stall, said Manoj Chandel, an executive of ForceOne, the event managers. “The Urdu Akadami, on the other hand, declared pointblank that they did not have funds enough to buy space,” adding that the stall rates had been subsidised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 15,000 for those displaying Hindi and Urdu books.

“The Pakistani party wanted to be part of the National Book Fair beginning in New Delhi from September 16 and so they backed out saying they would not be able to get a visa for that long,” added Chandel.

Wrong timing seems to be marring the fortune of the fair this year. Two other book fairs by organizers other than FPBA are being held in other parts of the nation, including one in Indore, while the biggest of all is due to begin in New Delhi. “Quite a few publishers have just sent their stock and not their staff whom they require at the other venues,” added the organizers, saying major publishers like Rupa &Co and Harper Collins have outsourced the selling part to other players like Nayyar, etc.