It was a rather different kind of experience for me, going to a book-fair and returning home with a water-filter. Hey no, don’t be misled. It’s not the filter that we use to filter drinking water at home. It’s just a small plastic device, costing Twenty Rupees, fitted with some filter and a small fan that supposedly filters water of dust particles and sprinkles it like a shower. In fact I bought it as a plaything for my little daughter (children do love such things).
So, this was all that I could buy during my visit to the International Book Fair at the Ernakulathappan Grounds, Kochi. Not that there were no books to buy. There were in fact some real good book-stalls, and the friend who accompanied me bought some fabulous books at very reasonable prices. But since my purse was rather empty that day (I do wish to go again and buy books of my choice), I could but cast a ‘longing lingering look’ at those books that I left unpurchased.
Well two things that caught my fancy at the book fair.
Newsreports and the organisers claim that it’s one of the most reputed of book-exhibitions. Seeing only about ten or at the most a dozen good
Photo: Rajesh Parambil
book stalls (the others were book stalls for the sake of it and there were stalls selling things like the water-filter I bought and such other stuff), I was left wondering if at all it’s the reputed book-fair that it was said to be. Of course a genuine book-lover would find some really wonderful books in the fair, or for that matter in any book exhibition. But still, it didn’t seem to match my expectations.
The second thing that struck my notice was the seminars, debate aspect, which too was a much talked about thing. When we went in, we saw a debate being conducted about showing compassion to animals and children taking part. Hearing them act out things which they were never ever taught to believe (who cares to teach children things like love and compassion in the mad, competitive atmosphere of the city schools of today?!) and uttering words that were almost hollow. This of course was pardonable as they were after-all children and may change (hopefully!) when they grow up. But what caught my fancy was a young boy making an ‘emphatic sounding’ speech (of course with the grammar going wrong at all places and stressing the wrong words in a wrong manner) and his father sitting among the audience (which comprised mostly of ‘proud’ parents) and running his eye though the printed draft of the speech that his son was making. The way the parent was nodding his head when his son finshed each sentence and gasped, obviosuly for the next one, seemed funny to me.
Wow, what an experience it was! Unforgettable.
‘Went to the book-fair and bought a water-filter’
It was a rather different kind of experience for me, going to a book-fair and returning home with a water-filter. Hey no, don’t be misled. It’s not the filter that we use to filter drinking water at home. It’s just a small plastic device, costing Twenty Rupees, fitted with some filter and a small fan that supposedly filters water of dust particles and sprinkles it like a shower. In fact I bought it as a plaything for my little daughter (children do love such things).
So, this was all that I could buy during my visit to the International Book Fair at the Ernakulathappan Grounds, Kochi. Not that there were no books to buy. There were in fact some real good book-stalls, and the friend who accompanied me bought some fabulous books at very reasonable prices. But since my purse was rather empty that day (I do wish to go again and buy books of my choice), I could but cast a ‘longing lingering look’ at those books that I left unpurchased.
Well two things that caught my fancy at the book fair.
Newsreports and the organisers claim that it’s one of the most reputed of book-exhibitions. Seeing only about ten or at the most a dozen good book stalls (the others were book stalls for the sake of it and there were stalls selling things like the water-filter I bought and such other stuff), I was left wondering if at all it’s the reputed book-fair that it was said to be. Of course a genuine book-lover would find some really wonderful books in the fair, or for that matter in any book exhibition. But still, it didn’t seem to match my expectations.
The second thing that struck my notice was the seminars, debate aspect, which too was a much talked about thing. When we went in, we saw a debate being conducted about showing compassion to animals and children taking part. Hearing them act out things which they were never ever taught to believe (who cares to teach children things like love and compassion in the mad, competitive atmosphere of the city schools of today?!) and uttering words that were almost hollow. This of course was pardonable as they were after-all children and may change (hopefully!) when they grow up. But what caught my fancy was a young boy making an ‘emphatic sounding’ speech (of course with the grammar going wrong at all places and stressing the wrong words in a wrong manner) and his father sitting among the audience (which comprised mostly of ‘proud’ parents) and running his eye though the printed draft of the speech that his son was making. The way the parent was nodding his head when his son finshed each sentence and gasped, obviosuly for the next one, seemed funny to me.
Wow, what an experience it was! Unforgettable.
