Book Fair Diary!

* The annual book fair at Chennai was something that I have been missing for the past few years for obviously trivial reasons because there cannot be a bigger task to do (or a bigger joy to relish) than choosing a book you love from the 400-odd book stalls spread across an entire school playground.I bunked my project sessions ,put a pause button on "Kriya" fever and went for the fair.I purposefully did not inform any friends or relatives in Chennai about my visit.I wanted it to be the day of private conversations with the books I love.Books,me and not even The Almighty in between.

*I eagerly went to Gnani's(The best socio-political journalist in India) stall expecting to meet him and ask him "Why are you so angry on everyone in the society?".He is that rare person who finds fault even with someone like Kalam. Unluckily for me,he did not come that day and I bought the latest edition of "O Pakkangal" to make amends.I have always followed him and strongly feel that his anger is a necessity in our contemporary society in which every element in the mainstream media goes so feverishly agog about every step the ruling regime takes.

*I met a certain Krishna Prabhu when I came out of the book fair.The conversation started with his poser ,"You came all the way from Coimbatore for the book fair?" and my reply pleasantly surprised him.As the conversation progressed,it was my turn to get pleasantly surprised constantly.He completed his undergraduation to get the job of a website designer before relinquishing it for the little joys of reading beautiful books and meeting even-more-beautiful writers.

When I asked him about the financial constraint his joblessness posed,he so easily replied that the pursuit of happiness has nothing to do with money.He took me back inside the book fair and introduced me to unique writers (Eg:Aasai Thambi is working on Tamil names for all types of birds and animals).As I left the book fair,he was taking another new friend to another book stall suggesting him a good novel from Pa.Raghavan or a good history-book from Aazhi Pathipagam.Krishna Prabhu is one of his kind.

*Three years after his death,Sujatha is still the crowdpuller.Many book stalls have put up a big photo of his in the front to attract people.While every other Tamil writer is yet to find a clear key as to how to sell a book,Sujatha's books so effortlessly sell in dozens.Writers die but their books do not.Long live Sujathoughts!

Extra:

1.Dhinathanthi's "Varalatru Suvadugal" is a must-buy.With the quality of paper used and the quality of content in it,it can easily be sold at Rs.700 or Rs.800 but it is being sold at a cheap price of Rs.300.And this in the era of hyper-inflation!

2.There was good turnout in all stalls considering that I went on a weekday but I was saddened to see very few children and youngsters.A book fair without a good turnout of youngsters is as bad a news as the crores looted in the 2G spectrum scam.

3.Toilet facility was pathetic.But the food available was good.Other than the usual popcorn,steamed corn and fruit juices,little boxes of juicy strawberries straight from Mahabaleshwar were being sold.Sweet end to a meaningful day.