New Delhi, September 06: Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, is clearly the most visible face at the 15th Delhi Book Fair, which ends on Sunday at Pragati Maidan.
It is not just the huge banners for Jaswant Singh’s book, Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence, put up all over the venue by the book’s publishers (Rupa as well as Rajpal), that make him so evident. All other books on the man and related subjects, including the Partition, are the biggest draw at the fair.
Bibliophiles could be seen heading to the stall of Vani Prakashan that displayed the title Jinnah: Mohammed Ali Se Qaid-e-Azam Tak – the Hindi version of Stanley Wolpert’s tome Jinnah of Pakistan. Shrikant Awasthi of Vani Prakashan said, “The hype is thanks to Jaswant Singh’s book.”
On the fair’s penultimate day, most of the publishers and distributors said the sales this year had been higher than in the previous year, despite the shadow of swine flu and recession.
Ajay Mago of Om Books International said: “Jaswant Singh’s book has been the most sought-after title. The only other book to rival his book has been Ravi Kapoor’s The Sacred Secret, of which we sold 250 copies in one week.” He said in the last 15 years, 2009 had been the best for the fair. “It is good that the price of the ticket has been increased to Rs 20, up from Rs 5 till last year. As a result, only those genuinely interested in books have come to the fair,” Mago said.
The most impressive title on the Om Books shelf is the coffee table volume, Bollywood in Posters, by SMM Ausaja.
Priced at Rs 2,500 (available at the fair at a 40 per cent discount), the book will be launched by Mago in Mumbai in the last week of September. “Ausaja has about 6,000 rare Bollywood posters, from 1930 onwards. We have selected 250 for this book,” he said.
Most of the managers of stalls parrot the same Jaswant Singh story. Rahul Srivastava of Rave Media said, “We have had a good fair this time. Of all the new books, Jaswant Singh’s has been the hottest property.” With discounts being offered by all stalls, book lovers could be seen looking for good bargains. Stalls selling combo packs of books by renowned authors at discounted prices are doing good business.
The most interesting stall, though, is that of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, which is doing brisk business selling 15-DVD packs that teach Sanskrit.
Priced at Rs 2,000, the pack is available at the fair for Rs 1,200.
—Agencies