Jamshedpur, Nov. 20: The 31st Jamshedpur Book Fair kicked off at the Rabindra Bhavan grounds here amidst enthusiasm on Friday. This year, the theme of the 10-day annual book fair is “Peace and Unity.” The fair will conclude on November 29.
For the past three decades, Tagore Society has been organising the fair, which attracts a large number students and residents of the steel city.
Book lovers in the region can go through and purchase books on a wide range of interesting subjects in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Odia and Santhali from publishers hailing from New Delhi, Kolkata, Odisha and other states.
Students of Tagore School of Arts have lined up a number of cultural events too. Apart from an inter-school quiz competition, the society has also decided to organise a panel discussion on November 25 on the RTE Act and whether easy promotion of students was justified.
Ashis Chowdhury, general secretary of the society, said, “Book lovers eagerly wait for the annual fair. Our basic idea is to promote rich literature of different languages and so was keen to have books of all regional languages at the fair.”
He also went on to inform that all precautionary measures such as installing CCTV, fire-fighters, dog squad have been made to ensure life and property during the fair. The society has also lined up events like seminars on literature, quizzes, compilation of songs and cultural programmes to attract book lovers.
“Our priority is more on quality publishers and not just quantity. We would like book lovers to come and enjoy books to cultivate a reading habit,” said the secretary of Tagore Society.
It may be mentioned here that Tagore Society, a city based leading educational and cultural organisation, has been organising the book fair for more than two decades now. Celebrities like writer Mahashweta Devi, and noted quizmaster Neil O’ Brien have participated in the fair earlier.