Few takers for book week celebrations

Joshi8217;s speech started off on quite an entertaining note. He pointed to the motto on the wall The way to a golden future buy, beg or borrow a book. 8220;I don8217;t agree with the borrow8217; part as being a book lover, my books were often borrowed by friends by never returned,8221; Murli Manohar Joshi said. He cited this as the reason that Mark Twain gave for his expansive library.

A major emphasis on all of the speeches was the importance of the Sanskrit language not surprising, since there were two experts present there. 8220;I don8217;t know why English is called the universal language as the users of it comprise only nine per cent of the world population,8221;said Joshi. Sanskrit scholar Patel thanked the Union Minister for having declared 1999 as the year of the Sanskrit language. He termed the language as the 8220;mother of mother tongues.8221;

At the function Gautam Patel also presented a work of Adi Shankaracharya to the Union Minister. Besides this, he also released 12 Sanskrit works.

The highlights of the book week are organising exhibitions throughout the country, various programmes with well-known personalities 8212; in Delhi, there was a talk by Rajendra Yadav and Uma Sharma as well as awareness generated through the media.