Step out of your fast-paced life and spend some time with books or your dear ones while hunting for something to read. Or introduce your kids to the varied genres of reading material available around.
The much-awaited 22nd Patna Book Fair, which acting Chief Justice of Patna High Court Iqbal Ahmed Ansari inaugurated on Friday, is the one-stop destination for all the above desires.
At the fair, Justice Iqbal said: "Book fairs help in complete development of personality and hence, promote education, which is different from literacy. They also introduce people to a variety of viewpoints prevalent in today's world like 'hatred begets hatred' or 'yesterday's terrorist in history may become a freedom fighter of today'."
The department of posts also recognised the popular event with Bihar director of India Post releasing a special cover on Patna Book Fair priced at Rs 30 each.
Soon after the 12-day event was thrown open, thousands of book lovers thronged the fair at Gandhi Maidan. They marched into over 450 stalls put up by over 200 publishers, including well-known ones like Oxford University Press, Orient Blackswan, Upkar, Rajkamal, Arihant and others.
"My friends and I wait for this annual fair eagerly and try to visit it everyday to browse and buy books that can help us in competitive examinations. It also becomes an excuse for all of us to meet up," said Ragini Kumari, a student of Patna Women's College.
Some visitors were disappointed that many publishers were still arranging their stalls after the inauguration. Vijay Kumar, a businessman who resides close to Patna University, had come with his daughter. He said: "The fair is not yet fully functional. Guess I will have to come again to browse the collections."
Swati Singh, a teacher at Loyola High School, praised the organisers for watering the ground to settle the dust but said the fair focused only on exam- and course-oriented books. "I am an avid reader but find very few options here. Education-, course- and examination-related books are all around but it is difficult to find choices in English literature and fiction," she said.
Fair president H.L. Gulati admitted that the quality of the fair had deteriorated over the years because of multiple such events being organised at the same time and place.
However, what surprised visitors was the Made in India section, which celebrated 18 folk and tribal art forms like Warli art of Maharashtra, Gond art of Madhya Pradesh, Pattachitra of Odisha and Bengal to Madhubani paintings of Bihar. The artists of respective art genre worked in and around their stalls for the benefit of visitors, who can get a first-hand experience about what goes into their making.
"Seeing the artists at work is enlightening for us. We are charmed by the methods they adopt to produce exquisite pieces of art," said B.N. Vishwakarma, a professor of BS College, Danapur.
Another attraction was driftwood artwork put up by Patna traffic superintendent of police Prantosh Kumar Das and book lovers took time out to admire them.
New Dimensions of Labour Economics, written by Kameshwar Pandit of Patna University, was released on the occasion.
