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In the book fair, after a long time…

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 was sure yet skeptical mainly because I know I will not have any company. Also, over the years I have shifted to reading with my kindle. Unpopular opinion: e-books feel more appealing to me than real books. The reason why is, it offers great mobility and occupies almost no space at all. Also, it is a blessing to read at night without having to keep the lights on and having to get up from bed just to switch off the lights. Let's face it, we are lazy like that.

But kindle comes with a couple of disadvantages as well. Primarily it is a business venture and hence has an algorithm that makes us stick to one genre always. Also, the top-rated books it shows will not always be to our liking. So, unless you can search with a specific title, it is hard to find a good read. I have already run out of recommendations because I have no friends or colleagues right now with whom I can discuss books. This is where going to physical bookstores would help greatly where curated options will be offered right at the grab of our hands.

When I entered the book fair, it all felt so familiar yet different. From the 10 rupees entry ticket to the giant eateries outweighing the business of books also at times, it all feels familiar. Yet different, because the responsibility of an adult kicks in. I would have protested to my mother if she had packed lunch for going to the book fair. But as I start to cook my own meals, I made sure to take one lunch box with me and that does not feel embarrassing anymore. Also, I could feel the long trail of book stalls making my legs scream in pain, the constant complaint I used to hear from my parents. Suddenly, I feel like I am aging faster than anybody else. Moving on to the positive things, the book fair has a separate fandom because it brings everything under one roof. You can even find theist and atheist books in the same stall. Also the discipline the crowd maintains talks a lot about inculcating the practice of reading in every individual. This year the stall kept by the TN prisons department was a huge hit owing to their great initiative of driving book lovers to donate books for the prisoners. People are happy to flock to this stall with books and take pictures with the police.

I bought quite a good range of books from archaeology to Ambedkar-ism to environmentalism to politics and also got introduced to new authors which I hope I will start reading frequently. This is how the book fair introduces us to new worlds which we never knew existed in the first place. I always have the unnecessary urgency to finish a physical book if I start reading one. I hope I move past that pressure and revel in the books as slowly as I can.

Happy reading all of you!

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