The 10-day ‘Nellai Book Fair 2020’, which commenced at VOC Stadium in Palayamkottai on February 1, has become a roaring hit as booksellers and publishers are quite happy with the sale crossing ₹1.50 crore in the first seven days.
When similar fair was organised in 2018, ₹2.10 crore worth books were sold in ten days.
As booksellers and publishers have displayed their books in over 110 stalls in the expo, people from various parts of Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi districts visit the fair with great deal of zeal to buy books. Over 1,27,938 visitors came to the book fair and purchased ₹30 lakh worth books in the first three days itself and the number crossed ₹1.50 crore with over 3.50 lakh persons visiting the fair, the organisers say.
“Since 10% discount is being given for all books and good number of publishers and the booksellers are giving ‘buy one get one free’ offer, reception for this expo is excellent. So far, ₹1.50 crore-worth books have been sold,” says Sub-Collector (Training) Sivaguru Prabhakaran, a member of the organising committee.
While most of the schools in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts are bringing their students to the book fair in the forenoon to buy books and also to participate in the cultural and literary competitions being organised on the sidelines of the expo, the public in large number visit the stalls in the evening with their children. Lectures by invited speakers, ‘pattimantram’ and other special programmes attract huge crowd in the evening. Unlike other functions, the special guests are being honoured strictly with khadi shawls as proposed by District Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish and not with other costly shawls.
Whenever aged or physically challenged visitors come, student volunteers of Sadakkathullah Appa College rush to them with wheelchairs and patiently take them around the book fair.
The Tirunelveli Corporation, which has opened a stall to explain to the people about the ‘Smart City’ programme, has sold over a tonne vericompost prepared in its micro compost centres created in various parts of the city as part of its solid waste management programme. “We’re selling one kilogram of vermicompost for ₹5 and we could sell over a tonne vermicompost in the first two days itself,” the staff manning the stall say.
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project’s stall attracts huge crowd as visitors, particularly students, are keen on enriching their knowledge about nuclear energy and busting the myths associated with it by raising various questions. Students of engineering can be seen enquiring about qualifying themselves for the examinations being conducted by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to select personnel to work in its nuclear reactors. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Propulsion Research Complex at Mahendragiri in the district will open its stall on Saturday (February 8) and it will be open for visitors till Monday, the last day of the fair.
The most striking feature of the book fair is that students have started an attempt to create record by reading books continuously right from the start to the end of the book fair on February 10. The objective of this effort is to create awareness among the younger generation about the need for reading good books as the habit is waning fast in the digital era.
Another interesting feature is that the organisers have created an exclusive area for receiving from the public old books from all fields, especially books useful for poor students pursuing engineering, medicine, law, agriculture and other branches of arts and science and books that play a vital role in preparing for competitive examinations. These old books would be given to deserving students.