This Sunday I visited the 28th Delhi Book Fair (and Stationery Fair) 2024 after so many years! I visited this fair for the first time after Covid pandemic. Even though it is the poorer cousin of the World Book Fair (which happens in February), I have always had a soft corner for the Delhi Book Fair (which happens in August) as it is a much local affair. Local booksellers come here more than national level booksellers and government institutions. This made me realise that I have tribal instincts when it comes to my city despite being a traveler!
The pictures below show my visit to the Book Fair -
The banner at the Entrance with quotes from Baba Ambedkar, APJ Abdul Kalam and Rabindranath Tagore.
The book fair was taking place in hall 12A. It is one of the older halls still standing (the rest have been demolished), so I was a bit nostalgic walking through it🥹!
There were two Reading Zones in the Book Fair, which was a very good idea!
While I squatted at the Reading Area I admired this colourful silhouette of Monuments!
Can you tell which Delhi monuments are shown here 😊?
This was the other reading area.
There were so many stalls selling books on Sale!
The crowds were immense since it was the last day of the Book Fair.
The Food Court was jam packed, as usual😓! There were huge queues at the Cash Counter so we decided to head outside for Lunch😋!
The best thing about the Book Fair are the Coffee Table books on offer!
This book on Space really intrigued me🤔!
There were a lot of stalls selling books for kids and parents and children were poring over them!
And, there were comics on sale too, much to the excitements of the kids🥳!
There were story books for children in other languages too🎈! This was the stall of National Council for the Promotion of Urdu Language✍️! (They give really good discounts btw🫰!)
The section of biographies etc. in the National Council stall.
And, these are the books I bought😌!
Let me tell you a bit about my selections. The Perfumed Garden is based on an erotic Medieval Persian Manuscript, it mirrors the Kamasutra. An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor is about the British Rule and exploitation of India (An era of darkness by shashi tharoor is a highly rated book!), Dongri to Dubai is a Non Fiction work on the Mumbai Underworld by a crime journalist S Husain Zaidi. These books were on 'Sale'.
The other three books are in Urdu. Dehli ke Chishti Mashaikh is a book talking about the Sufis of Delhi belonging to the Chishti Silsila (written by Prof. Qasemi), Bazm e Aakhir is about the life in Red Fort right before the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 CE and lastly, Duniya ke Behtarin Kahaniya consists of select stories form the world, translated into Urdu.
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