The fair has rare books in huge variety which you won’t find in shops: Agra’s bibliophiles

Book nerds in

Agra

are a happy lot these days. The

Agra Book Fair

is on at the

Agra College ground

and book lovers say that while it may not be as big as the World Book Fair held annually at

Pragati Maidan

in Delhi, it's not lagging far behind. The fair, which began on March 11 will culminate tomorrow.
While many Agrawallahs are delighted with the fact that they are able to attend a “world class book fair” that has a huge stock of

books

, others feel that attending book fairs like this will help generate reading interest in youngsters.
While Agra does have many book stores, bibliophiles say that a book fair is always special and the experience of browsing books at a book fair is a completely different thing altogether.

Agra Book Fair at Agra College ground

‘Visiting book fairs help in developing reading interests among youngsters’
Kamya Oberoi, a resident of New Idgah Colony, who visited the fair with her daughters, says, “I took my daughters to the fair because they are not at all into reading. They are forever hooked on to technology but I want them to develop interest in reading too. And I feel, visiting a book fair helps.” She adds, “This is the first time I am visiting a book fair in Agra and I am quite impressed with the way it has been organised. The best thing about a fair like this is that you will get a huge variety of books in one place, and the experience of browsing through rows and rows of books at a fair is quite a unique one. It’s not something that you can experience in a book shop.”
Priya Kapoor, a resident of New

Lajpat Kunj

, says, “Since I love reading books, I visited the book fair the day I got to know about it. It was a wonderful experience to see so many varieties of books at one place. I bought two books and I am looking forward to visiting the book fair one more time.”

‘The fair has a huge collection of rare

Hindi

books’
Mudit Chaturvedi, a businessman from Shamshabad Road, says, “I went to the fair with my family and loved the arrangements there. I am quite impressed with the emphasis given to the Hindi section. My mother and brother love reading Hindi literature and they got all those Hindi books they were searching for really long at this book fair. Today, when everyone is reading English books, it is good to see book fairs giving so much of importance to Hindi books as well.”
Komila Dhar, a resident of Jaipur House, says, “There is a huge collection of Hindi books. I bought Mahabharat Ka Arth. The fair also has a music section. I bought a CD collection of classical ragas, a rare one which I may not have chanced upon otherwise. I also met some young writers who have showcased their books at the fair.”

Story telling sessions and drawing competitions to attract more visitors
Deepak Sarin, one of the organisers of the book fair, tells us, “This is a book fair, which, we can say, is being organised on the level of the World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Apart from books, we are also organising other literary and cultural events at the venue. We have story telling sessions and drawing competitions where students and visitors are asked to perform impromptu. We are also having writing and storytelling workshops.”