Crowds give last day of book fair a miss

Last-minute visitors at this year’s World Book Fair were,however,in for a surprise. Arun Singh (37),a Gurgaon-based corporate professional,could not believe his luck. “I was dreading visiting on the last day because of the crowds,” he said. “But this is like any other day,” he said.

Fair regulars could not remember the last time they saw such moderate crowds on the closing day. “I have been coming here for almost a decade,but this time the crowd on the last day is surprisingly moderate,” said Saif Akhtar,a post-graduate student at Jamia Millia Islamia.

This empirical observation was not shared by Nasrat Hasan,director of the World Book Fair,who termed it an “all-time high”. “I have been talking to publishers and trade members and they say the crowd numbers have been unexpected,” Hasan said.

The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) put the number of tickets sold at 1.61 lakh,but Hasan argued that the number was likely to be substantially higher. “There has been lots of free entry,since we were not charging tickets for school children,” she said.

Officials of the ITPO,however,disagreed,saying free entry would be a small percentage of the total tickets sold.

The special focus on sports literature,as a theme for the festival,was a major disappointment. The “exhibition of 700 books from 75 publishers worldwide” consisted mostly of second-rung self-help titles such as Teach Yourself Long Jump,Book of Games and a book with a shoddy jacket simply titled Golf. “I was hoping to find books by some of the best sport writers such as CLR James and Neville Cardus,” said Aditya Nair,a student of Delhi University. “But the theme collection this year is a farce.”

As the fair ends and book shelves are dismantled,there is still confusion on the fair’s next date. National Book Trust,the organisers,had put forward a demand that the biggest fair in the Afro-Asian region to be made an annual event — a request enthusiastically received by Human Resources Development minister Kapil Sibal.

The organisers,however,refused to say when the fair would return. “As of now,the next date for the fair is February 2012,but then life is full of possibilities,” director Hasan signed off.