I had an occasion to visit a Book fair very recently. It was held at Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha. It filled me with so much delight that I can never describe my feelings in mere words. The place where the book fair was held is a large open field. It was fenced with tin plates all around in a circular form. There was a huge gate facing the main road. There were policemen on duty round the clock. There was sufficient space for parking on either side of the gate. The visitors could park their vehicles or bicycles there. People were engaged to look after them. The gate was richly decorated with coloured lights which drew people's attention from a distance.
The book fair looked like a dreamland with its lights and decorations. The whole arena was divided into two sectors. In each sector, the stalls were arranged in a circular form. A visitor to the book fair entered by the gate to the first sector went around the stalls in the said sector, and then he went to the second sector to have a view of it. Both the sectors were connected with a decorated gate. There was an exit gate in the second sector. The stalls in each sector were decorated beautifully. Each stall was 15 feet wide and 20 feet long. Many of the publishers of Orissa and a number of publishing houses from all over the country took part in the book fair. Each publisher took one or more stalls on hire to display their books. They exhibited their books on racks so nicely that one cannot but have a look at them and will be tempted to make some purchases. The visitors entered each stall, welcomed by the smiling salesmen, went around inside it looking at the books arranged subject wise in different sections. They could see the books, go through them and make their choice freely. Then they came to the sales counter, produced the books of their choice, got the cash memo, paid cash and came out with a satisfaction. Thus, they visited different stalls to make their own choice.
The book fair began at 2 p.m. and continued till 8 p.m. A lot of visitors came into the book fair and number increased in the evening hour. The book fair looked quite a dreamland. Wherever you cast your eyes, you find books and books only. As I entered the land of books, I forgot myself. Each stall beckoned me to pay a visit. I was in a fix. I found their lots of useful and interesting books available at a usual discount of ten percent. I found there the renowned publishing houses like Oxford, Macmillan, Orient Longman, S. Chand, Kalyani, UBS Publishers and so on. I bought a book on English Grammar by Thomson and Martinet and a storybook of Maupassant. I visited the stalls of Odisha Publishers. The varieties of books of their publications fascinated me very much. I chose ‘The Ancient Indian History' by Ashok Kumar Rath a Taratarini Pustakalaya. The most striking thing at the book fair is the stall exhibiting old books. There was a heavy rush there. I found the visitors choosing books of their choice out of the huge stock at the stall. Each book cost only ten rupees. The stall was so crowded that I could not go inside to make my choice. I thought of visiting it some other day and thus consoled myself. My visit to the book fair was really very useful to me. I saw there a large variety of books. I forget myself completely when I entered the world of books. It spent there about three hours in the midst of books and book-lovers. I was a very pleasant experience for me.
A book fair is always useful to one and all. It helps the consumers find books of different publishing houses at one place and make their own choice. It encourages the sales of books. It enables people to know about the publications of books in different branches of knowledge. It increases the readers and lovers of books and thus boosts the book trade. It is really a healthy sign for a nation if its people take more and more interest in reading books. So, such book fair should be organised in almost all the towns and cities to instil in the people the habit of buying the book and reading them.
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