Book fair Nostalgia

If there is one thing that all the kids in our town awaited with bated breath, it has to the Book Fair. It has about 60-80(?) book stalls of various publishing houses spread across a big ground, and then to finish your evening on a high, there was always joy rides that included giant wheel, tora tora, cup and saucers, dashing cars and once, a water slide and go karting, even! And not to forget the food counter serving Delhi Appalams, Gobi 65, Fried Idlis and what-not! The one thing I'm always guilty of skipping is the auditorium, which used to have speakers/authors from across the State, sharing their views on various topics. I think this again had a separate theme for each year and a sub-theme for each day. 

It happens every year around June-July, for a period of 10 days. Starts at about 4:30PM in the evening and ends at 9:30-10:00ish. Every year there used to be a theme for the entrance decor, which kept getting better year on year. They had a daily entry pass or a seasonal pass for the entire 10 days, both of which if I remember right, didn't exceed Rs.50. 

The only motto during the book fair days was to rush out of school by 4:00PM and finish off all the homework, and get to the book fair by 6:00PM. This was possibly around Class VI-Class X. There were separate visits with friends and family. With friends, it always used to be loitering around each shop trying to find a book that you like, and note down the shop name & the book name, go on all the rides, hog on a little of the food that was bought on shared money.  I wouldn't call myself a voracious reader - most of my books were Tenali Raman, Mullah, Akbar Birbal and the likes. The one other thing I was absolutely fascinated about were puzzle / activity books like word finders, 365 pages of activities, etc. The day I come with parents is always with the motto to empty their pockets - buy all the books shortlisted, eat so much that you wouldn't want to have dinner when you go home and go on all the joy rides, all over again. 

Something else that was very interesting to me in book fairs were bumping into your class/schoolmates (people that I haven't really talked with). It feels like you get a glimpse of another side of their life outside the school gates.

Thinking back, I'm honestly stumped at how NLC had managed to pull off a book fair year after year, because it is definitely no easy job. Bringing together so many people, publishing houses, scouting for speakers/authors, logistics, theme ideas - all of this required so much time, effort and money - but I'm ever thankful that they did it, because it was all absolutely worth it. Anyone who had lived in Neyveli, would definitely have fond memories of any time they spent there. It was as close to an annual oor-thiruvizha you'd have in any village - this was our oor-thiruvizha.

You may wonder why all this nostalgia all of a sudden. It's because of this one picture that a friend of mine shared. Apparently, there is a book fair this year at Neyveli, after a gap of 4-5 years. This picture triggered out a lot of old memories, stashed right at the back of my mind, which I felt were worth putting down here!