Aswini Ashok

When we were kids, our parents made sure to take us to the book fair & exhibition every year during the Pongal season. I remember the fair moving location year to year from St. George school (The famous kana kanum kalangal school) to YMCA and my mother would say that it used to be held in Quaide milleth when she was in college. Slowly over the years my dad would stop at the entrance and listen to the evening speeches and debates at the venue and let my mother take us inside the fair. Then he stopped coming altogether. I remember going with my mother when I was in my early 20s. Now that all my sisters live separately, it would be a miracle if we go together to the book fair, provided the little time we spend together. But the urge to visit the fair still lies with us, thanks to the efforts our parents put into our childhood. The last I went to the book fair was in 2020, after that due to covid and other reasons, I have just given up that idea. This year when the season started, I wa