PATNA: The nine-day long National Book Fair will begin at Gandhi Maidan from Friday. The fair, which is being organized by the NationalBook Trust (NBT), will be inaugurated by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar through video conferencing at 4 pm.
Talking reporters here, NBT chief editor and joint director (Urdu) Shams Iqbal said Bihar has been known for its academics. There is a great interest for books among the people of the state. "Ours is an effort to bring book lovers together," he said.
The NBT had received a number of requests from the Bihar HRD department to organize a book fair to coincide with the state's Education Day celebrations at the same venue, Iqbal added.
"The book fair will open at 11 am daily and continue till 8 pm. Entry to the book fair is free," said Rakesh Kumar, in-charge of the book fair.
The fair, which will cover a 70,000 sq ft area, will have about 200 stalls of national publishers like National Book Trust, Sahitya Academy, and National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, among others.
"The book fair will also witness various literary programmes during its nine-day period.
When the fair begins on November 11, a book in Urdu on the life of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad authored by Firoz Waqth Ahmed will be discussed by prominent writers, Iqbal said.
A workshop on creative writing will be held on November 12 in which well-known journalists from Patna and other parts of the country will take part. A discussion on carrier in media is also lined up on the same day.
On November 13, there is a discussion on satirical writings. Noted satire writer Alok Puranik, among others, will participate in it. Releases of satirical books are also scheduled for the day.
November 14 (Children's Day) will be dedicated entirely to children. A workshop on the role of books in the lives of children themed as "Childhood and Books" will be held to mark the day. Various programmes like painting competition, poster making competition and others are also lined up to engage children in creative activities at the book fair.
There is no special programme on November 15. A programme "Meet the author" programme is scheduled on November 16. Book lovers could meet a Bihar author Mithleshwar on the day. There is again no programme the next day. Meet the Author, with another Bihar author Usha Kiran Khan, is scheduled for November 18.
A 10% discount on all books will be given in the beginning it may be increased later.
TOI Patna
