Gulzar to visit city book fair

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">PATNA: Well-known writer and film director Gulzar will visit the Patna Book Fair on December 14 and will spend two hours to give autographs to lovers of his books at Rajkamal Prakashan book stall. <br />Ashok Maheshawari of Rajkamal Prakashan and Radhakrishan Publications gave this information on Thursday.<br />Four books of Gulzar, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Chainya-Chainya</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mera Kuchh Saman</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Boski ki Panchtantra</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Bosaki ki Brahaman</span> are available at his stall.<br />Meanwhile, as the fair is approaching its end, the sale of books have increased.<br />Some books have "won" the hearts of the people as their stocks at many stalls have run out.President A P J Abdul Kalam''s books, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Wings of Fire</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">India 2020</span>, both in Hindi and English, have been the bestsellers at the fair.<br />According to Anup Kumar, owner of Anupam stall, he had brought 500 copies of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Agani ki Udan</span>, translation of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Wings of Fire</span> and almost all of them have been sold. <br />Besides, he has sold 200 copies of Agatha Christie and the same number of motivational books by different writers.<br />Umesh Gor of Rajkamal Prakashan said the same thing. "Our stock of Khushwant Singh''s books have completely sold out," Gor said, adding that the books of Sushmita Bandhopadhyay on Afghanistan, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kabuliwale ki Bibi</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Taliban</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Afghan or Main</span> and noted Hindi writer Rajendra Yadav''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Adami ki Nigah Mein Aurat</span> have been the bestsellers at his stall.<br />Tagore and Premchand''s collections were still in big demand at the Sahitya Akademi stall.<br />A cartoon and proverb collection by Ratneshwar and Kumar Vikash have also been in big demand.<br />A number of cultural programmes were presented on the eighth day of the fair. <br />They include street play, poet''s meet, documentary on Gujarat and awards were presented too. A documentary, Evil Stalks Land, which depicts the communal violence in Gujarat after Godara carnage and has been filmed by Gohar Raza was screened at the auditorium here. Akshra Arts'' street play, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Murge Ki Jan Jaye</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Nababi Ka Khel</span> was an added attraction at the fair. <br />The play written by Ajay Kumar Singh and directed by Ajit Kumar is an attempt to portray the present education system, which has become so burdensome that many children perish under it. The performances of Aanvendra Tripathi, Jitendra Nath, Rana Santosh and Santosh Mehra were liked by the audience. <br />Anish Ankur managed the show and noted activist Amitabh delivered the foreword. The "poet''s meet" was organised by the Jales, a writers'' association. Harendra Vidyarthi conducted the show while poet Vanshidhar Singh presided over the function. <br />Among the prominent poets who participated were Dileep Teterve, Sudam Mishra, Nageshwar Sharma and Rakesh Priyadarshi.<br />Besides, the Book Fair Committee presented awards at a function organised in the evening. Prem Ranjan Avinash was awarded the Vidyapati Samman, Sanjay Jha was given Surendra Pratap Samman for his contribution in the field of journalism and Abhishek Sharma was honoured with Bhikhari Thakur Samman for his contribution in the field of plays.<br />Many prominent citizens of the city, including eminent historian Ram Sharan Sharma and Prasan Kumar Choudhary, were present at the fair. </div> </div>