Book fair a crowd-puller,parking woes,entry prove a setback

Even after one has managed to find one of the two gates,there is the endlessly confusing layout of the book fair to deal with. With 2,400 stalls and 1,119 participants,including those from 15 foreign countries,the fair is a truly mammoth affair. Despite the best efforts of both the India Trade Promotion Organisation and the National Book Trust to have signages at every nook and corner,it is easy to get lost. “I have been walking around and there are no signages to indicate where a certain hall is,or which publishers are in a particular hall. It’s all very confusing,” said Ramesh Jain from Manohar Publications.

While the lack of organisation can be a tad overwhelming,keep an eye out for NBT’s information desks that are spread out across the length and breadth of Pragati Maidan. Alternatively,you could also buy a book that lists out details of publishers and the halls they are in at a nominal price from the information desks.

While ITPO is yet to get down to the business of computing the number of visitors on inaugural day,it was clear thousands were thronging to the fair. Families with children in tow were lounging in the lawns,as were groups of students. Halls were packed with visitors. Some of the stalls that saw a large number of visitors were Penguin,Hatchette,Rave Media,Roli books,Harper Collins and Rupa. The German stalls attracted large crowds as well.