Crowds swell at Chennai book fair

Chennai: The YMCA grounds in the city where the 37th annual book fair is being held, received more than 22,000 footfalls till about 6 pm on Sunday. The combination of Pongal holidays and the weekend brought huge crowds to the book fair on Sunday.

Families along with their children visited the stalls and bought books as if they were in T. Nagar buying clothes and festive things for Pongal. Day 3 of the fair brought book readers from all age groups to the stalls.

Homemaker S. Veni spent almost four hours at the fair selecting books related to her subjects and also a few books on literature. “I bought the novel, Korkai, by Joe D’ Cruz. I learnt that his novel won the Sahitya Akademi award. I also picked up R.K. Narayan novels for my children and a few story books from the Punnagai stall which is an exclusive publication for children,” she said.

Another book-lover, R. Sivakumar, lecturer in the Management department of New College, Chennai, bought 11 books, including some on Tamil literature, and career guidance books.

“I bought a collection of Ashokamitran’s novels and a few short story books in Tamil. I will visit the fair next Sunday also with my family. My worry is that many college students do not show interest in reading Tamil literature. When I discuss these books with my students, many of them are not aware of renowned Tamil writers,” he said.

Arputham Amma, mother of death row convict Perarivalan who has been jailed for more than two decades in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has put up a stall. “On Sunday alone, more than 200 books were sold and countless DVDs, which discuss in detail the injustice meted out to Perarivalan, were sold. I am hopeful that people will join my fight against the death penalty,” Arputham Amma told Deccan Chronicle.