Hyderabad (Telangana) [India]: The 34th edition of the National Annual Book Fair, a platform to showcase the works of writers, witnessed the participation of booksellers, authors from across the country. The fair commenced on Saturday and will culminate on December 28 at NTR stadium in Hyderabad. Telangana minister Srinivas Goud inaugurated the Fair. Other ministers of the Telangana government, IAS officers and Principal Secretary too visited the fair. Speaking to ANI, Koya Chandra Mohan, Secretary, Annual Book Fair said that the fair is visited by lakhs of people including the publishers, authors and booksellers and added that there are stalls of the books in various languages. “Nearly one crore population is in Hyderabad. Lakhs of people visit here including Publishers, authors, booksellers from different states. Stalls of different languages including Hindi, Urdu, English, Sanskrit and other regional languages have been installed,” he said. Mohan further termed the event successful as people from the Indian as well as the International publications took part in the fair.
“Publications like Emesco, Telugu Publication and International Publications also took part in the book fair. We have taken all the precautions of COVID-19 guidelines. People come from different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and also border regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The fair is a very successful event,” he said. “A total of 270 stalls have been installed here. The Stalls of press and other publications, government stalls, different cultures and languages stalls have been installed. Booksellers from across 9 states in India have participated here in the event: Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana. There are ‘n’ numbers of writers in Telangana and this is a good platform for them to showcase their work,” Mohan added.
Ram Gopal a customer at the book fair who is an Engineer by profession said that “I have come for my grandson who is interested in special books such as comics. He is a citizen of the United States. So he is interested to know about India.” Another customer, Harini said, “I come here every year and buy books that interest me. I read a lot of fiction, and in fiction, there are a lot of genres that I read like fantasy, historic fiction and classics. Pretty much looking for classic books.” Vikram Kumar Shah a shopkeeper at the book fair said that he is been participating in the Book Fair for the past 20 years and he has a manufacturing unit in Telangana. “We have boards, Globes, teaching aids and other school items. The sale is good, the crowd is coming. The crowd is enthused to buy the products,” he said.
