FAIRNESS OF THE BOOK FAIR
As we all know that in every Kannada Sahithya Sammelana, there will be a special section allocated for the book fair. Even found one such segregated section in the form of Sharadha Mantapa in the 25th Dakshina Kannada Zilla Kannada Sahithya Sammelana. As it was inaugurated by the MLA of Belthangady Harish Poonja in presence of Nadoja Dr Mahesh Joshi who is a chairman of Kannada Sahitya Parishad was well received initially by a supportive amount of crowd and various book publication houses.
Last evening during the inauguration of Sammelana, as a reader, we were enthusiastic to experience the galaxy of Sapna, Sneha, Prasaranga, Rashtrothana, Sawanna, Shree Ramakrishna mission, and Geetha press at the universe of Sharadha Mantapa. But since we were put on for the reporting, we could not jump into the stream of literary aroma. We waited for one long day to enter into the universe of Sharadha Mantapa.
On the next day, even though we had a lot of responsibilities to report, somehow, we found a space to penetrate the hall of the book fair. Most of the customers of the bookstall were book lovers of all ages. We were awestruck and happy because we could only just see book stalls in each corner of the hall. We were anticipating more Kannada books, but surprisingly we even found English novels, story books, and educational guides in a dominant form at some of the bookstores. Each book stall carried a variety of books, the smell of new books filled the air and we could hear the exciting chatter of people exploring the stalls in a very joyful way. We also found the booksellers eagerly waiting to welcome the customers. As we enquired about some of the book publishers such as Prasaranga of Mangalore University, Sapna Book House, and Sneha we realized the current status of the Kannada publication industry. They also expressed the sad reality of the proliferation of Kannada literature. As per the struggle faced by the publisher, they were asked to pay rent of the hall, and on top of that, present readers would be in anticipation of the content which represents the stories of the 21st century. There have been attempts to proliferate the literary kinds of stuff through various forms. Nowadays, everyone has a broader view but not the depth of content.
For someone who loves to read, visiting a book fair is a pleasure. Students expressed their eagerness to buy General Knowledge books, Encyclopedia, Bedtime stories, and so on. The youngster’s novels written by Sudha Murthy, Chetan Bhagat, and Robin Sharma were the attention grabbers. Most of the women preferred to buy cooking-related books as well.
Though the publisher faced a struggle to unite the literature and its followers, they are satisfied with the immense pleasure of serving Kannada literature. However, believe it or not, bookstores unite people. Many people might say books are their best friends, but what friends a book stall gives you remains unsaid. This made us present an invisible gratitude for their efforts by giving space for those valuable books on our shelves.
by Someshwar Gurumath & Sanrita Madtha
1st year MCJ SDM PG centre, Ujire
