Kerala Assembly celebrates centenary with International Book Fair, open to public

For once, the gates to the Kerala Assembly are open to everyone coming with or without a pass. The huge campus at Thiruvananthapuram has turned itself into a venue for an international book fair for a week, beginning Monday, January 9. Security personnel in stark white uniforms direct you to the fair, spread across the large corridors outside the Assembly Hall.

On the first day, the area is covered with troops of schoolchildren, guided by teachers along the dozens of stalls displaying books. You can hear speeches from one side of the building, of ministers and authors, speaking on literature and releasing new books. The event is being held as part of the centenary celebrations of the Assembly Library.

“It is when your mental health weakens that you tend to rely on intoxicants but the society should move on to a creative high that one gets from reading," said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, inaugurating the book fair. Books are the best way to understand how the times keep changing, he said. In solidarity with the ongoing anti-drugs campaign in Kerala, the message of the book festival is 'Reading is intoxication’. More than 25,000 schoolchildren are expected to attend the festival.  

Writer T Padmanabhan was honoured with the first Niyamasabha (Assembly) Library award, which included a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a memento. "In my poverty-ridden childhood, I forgot my hunger by reading. Today, we need to make efforts to convince the younger generation that reading is intoxication," he said. In line with the anti-drug message of the festival, the writer said that he never tried to celebrate drinking or drugs through his writing.

Assembly speaker AN Shamseer said that democracy of reading is a need of the times we live in. 

Minister MB Rajesh, whose book Parajayapetta Kambola Deivam (The Failed God of Market Economy), was released as part of the event, stressed on the integrity of writing and reading, noting that national media houses have become the loudspeakers of corporates. "Media freedom has become one that existed between guns and prisons," he said.

More than 100 publishers and many renowned writers will be part of the event. Book releases, discussions with writers, and talks will be held during the week. There will also be various cultural programs as part of the fest.  It ends on January 15, Monday.

Also read: Kerala Legislature Library turns 101, now open to the public