Swimming in ink islands

39th Chennai Book Fair

• The 39th book fair in Chennai , held between June 1-13, spread over 2 lakh sq ft space, at Island Grounds in the northern part of the city, generated a business of Rs 15 crore spread over under a fortnight, a 33 per cent hike from that of last year when the total business generated was around Rs 10 crore
• The book fair saw a foot fall of nearly eight lakh people
• 10-lakh multi-lingual books, spread over 50000 titles, including those from English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam were available between June 1-13, at 10 per cent discount

The first fortnight of January has always been special in Chennai like in other parts of Tamil Nadu. Not just for the enduring freshness of the New Year just born and the heady high of Pongal the ‘local’ festival in Chennai, where the celebratory atmosphere is not complete without watching the brand new film releases of homegrown superstars.

Other than these must haves, there was the annual book fair to look forward to- with its humongous collection of titles in the local language, drawing works from totally literary to extremely futuristic focusing on the digital revolution. Not to speak of author meets, literary debates and mouth-watering food varieties for the thronging thousands at the venue.

This year, reeling under the devastating impact of the floods, which badly blighted the lives of thousands all around the state capital and large parts of the state, it was but natural, the observance of good times was muted and at best, salutary. So it was no surprise that other than a few die-hards who decided to salvage their remaining stocks, mercifully spared by the surging flood waters which entered every available open space in the metropolis, the regular event in January did not find many book sellers or buyers.

While the hastily-put together event was dismissed by the regular organisers Book Sellers and Publishers’ Association of South India (BAPASI)- as an ‘unofficial’ one, the recent one which was held between June 1-June 13, showed that the Chennaiites’ passion for the printed word is permanent and evergreen. By any account, the 39th book fair was a huge success. In its 13 days, the fair generated business worth Rs 15 crore, where book lovers picked up whatever they wanted from 700 stalls and a collection of nearly 50000 titles.

In its round-up press meet, the organisers admitted that the business, when compared to the regular event held in January was just 70 per cent of the anticipated turnover. Nevertheless, there were quite a few positives which they could take away from the current event held for the first time in the mid-part of the year.

Firstly, it has given the organisers the much-needed encouragement that the local readers are likely to welcome holding the book fair twice a year, if need be. While this is more of an administrative decision, the sidelights of the fortnight-long event came up with interesting pointers, viz.

• A very overwhelming response from women, children and youngsters
• A comfortable co-existence of both digital and printed versions of books
• Books on topics like history, politics, biographies, translated works, cookery, astrology were the favourites.
• Reduced demand for novels in all languages, a trend to be noted

Of course, such a mega event would not be without its niggles- given that transportation to the relatively remote location where it was held was problematic for many, apart from sanitary and basic facilities were stretched beyond expectations. Then there were the flash rains right at the beginning of the Fair which damaged books of a few exhibitors, for which the organisers promised to pay a token compensation.

‘There are green shoots of hope for sure, even after all this has happened as the organisers had given concessional tariffs to non-Tamil publishers and also made provisions for e-book publishers to exhibit their works, this time around. A few publishers from abroad like Singapore too had been allotted space this year, for the first time’, said Gandhi Kannadasan, the organiser of the event.

More than anything else, the literate crowd of Chennai was more than assured that they could always rely upon the resilience of its people to pull themselves through and keep their regular activities going on smoothly, as ever.

By K Naresh Kumar i