Bah! Books

Lucknow October 6, 2010: Yesterday I attended the 8th annual National Book Fair organized by Knowledge Tree Foundation and Wates Vision at Moti Mahal Lawns near one of my favourite malls.

This was the second time I ever visited a Book fair. The last time I did was in 2005 when it was organized at a different location.

              Allow me to come straight to the point. This book fair is better than the last one I visited. As a connoisseur of books this book fair had what I wanted- which is good books- and what I wanted ‘at a cheap price’- which was available. The biggest draw was perhaps the bumper discounts that were being offered. Prices were as low as Rs. 20 for books actually costing more than 10 times of it. The whole idea of heavy offers was solely to attract more crowds. However, it seems only a few were impressed.

I spent a total of four hours roaming around the whole place but saw that 75% of the stalls had no visitors. People of various ages were present but not everyone was buying books. I could hear the expressions of ‘wow’ and ‘how nice’ emanating from cheery faces but it ended at just that.

              Out of curiosity I asked a few stall owners about the state of business. No one gave a positive sign. Most of them had to say that sale was sluggish. Why? I wondered. Is it because the increasing competition of today is forcing the youth away from the hypothetical and largely phantasmal world of fiction? Or, is it because of the fact that Lucknow does not has enough people who simply love reading books.

               I pondered over the questions and came to the conclusion that both competition and lackluster attitude should share the blame. It is indeed true that the rise in competition for education and jobs have left the new generation to think of nothing beyond their course and read nothing beyond their course books. The lackluster attitude is present due to the fact that some well known libraries in this city either had to shut shops or are facing a tremendous shortage of visitors. The youth of today finds it better to watch the latest movie at hefty prices but will have great difficulty in pulling out a 30 rupee note for a book.

              In the 2005 fair I had witnessed heavy crowds of young college-goers. They were busy sifting through books in a particular stall. The stall manager and his helpers didn’t have a second to spare. And no, his stall didn’t have anything on literary fiction or non-fiction. The only type of books he had was of different competitions like CAT, CPMT, etc. In the ongoing book fair too, the surge whatever little was for a stall having books on computer technology and engineering.

              I understood why book-loving culture is fast dwindling and why for people like me this fair was better than the last one that I visited.