The advancement in technology and modernity may take place at any extent but our traditional values do not take us away from our ancient roots. While browsing through the books at Hall No. 11, the book lovers are being fascinated by the scriptures written on palm leaves in several Indian languages like Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada at the stall of Sanatana. The scriptures have been printed using the ancient Indian technique. In this age of e-books, the charm for techniques used in bygone era is not yet over.
The Delhi Pavilion at Hall 7D commemorates 100 years of Delhi as India’s capital. The pavilion designed in a circular shape gives us an opportunity to learn a lot more about Delhi and gives us a glimpse of transformations that have taken place since last 100 years. The pavilion exhibits rare books, photographs and paintings on Delhi by known and unknown artistes of erstwhile Delhi. The paintings on Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Safdarjung's Tomb and Jama Masjid take us to the journey of Delhi from Mughal era to Lutyen’s Delhi.
The foreign participants at the Fair are also exhibiting their books on the contemporary world and their history as well. The Iqbal Academy, a statuary body of the Government of Pakistan which promotes and disseminates the study and understanding of the works and teachings of Dr Iqbal, is exhibiting the Biography on Iqbal, Iqbal in Politics, The Western Horizon, Iqbal and Tagore and some of the original works of Iqbal. The academy also appreciated the efforts of NBT by arranging such a world class event with increasing standards every year.
Urim Books which is a leading publisher of South Korea is also participating in the Fair. The publishers has printed books in many foreign languages including English, Chinese, Spanish, Indian Language Hindi and Tamil.National Book Trust, India in association with National Film Archive of India, Pune is screening some of the rare and acclaimed movies at the theme pavilion. In the morning, classical black & white movie in Hindi Devdas (1936), directed by Shri P C Barua was screened. The movie is based on the well-known author Shri Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novella of the same name. The actors in the movie were Shri K L Sehgal, Ms T R Rajkumari and Ms Jamuna Barua.
The evening was dedicated to television series Malgudi Days which is based on the works of Shri R K Narayan. A workshop was organized by NBT at Children’s Pavilion where noted author, Ms Deepa Agarwal interacted with children and enlightened them with various techniques of story-writing.
Later in the evening, the students of DTEA Senior Secondary School, Laxmibai Nagar staged a short-play based on a book. The book lovers are also having a gala time at Lal Chowk where cultural programmes representing traditional folk dances and folk songs of various states of the country are being organized. The evening was culmination of martial art from Kerala and Manipur, as well folk dances of Manipur Sufiana Qwali by Shri Iftikhar Ahmed from Amroha, U.P.