33rd Chennai Book fair

I have heard about the book fair since my school days, but never been there. I was very much determined to go this time. My friends had given a very good feedback and asked me to visit it. Soon after getting the entry ticket, I entered the hall and was very much surprised to see the huge number of stalls. There were 466 stalls and I decided to go in an order from Stall 1.

Long back, I read the review of Akkaraipachai - Life of H1-B Software Engineer in the Land of Opportunity in Kungumam(Page 1, Page 2). Even the title is very catchy. The author has written one more book titled Dhooram portraying the life in villages. I went around the stall to get this book. But I couldn't find it. I have to buy from any of the book shops in T. Nagar.

As I was moving around, I noticed a person whom I have seen in TV. I couldn't recall his name but wanted to get his autograph. So, I went to his stall and browsed the books. From one of his books, I knew he was Muktha Srinivasan. He has written a lot of books and they were very cheap. I went through the books and picked one. Its price was just Rs. 18. I had a guilty feeling and picked one more book. After paying for the two books, I went to him and asked for his autograph. He asked my name with a smiling face and autographed in one of the books.

I knew the story of Mahabharata from the TV serial broadcasted during the Doordarshan days. Now, I am very much eager to get the essence of our epics.

Rajagopalachari has tranlated the Thirukkural into English. Seeing his work on Mahabharata, I grabbed this copy. He has also translated the tamil Kamba Ramayana into English.

I would buy books online or from Landmark. The tamil books in Landmark fill only a few racks. But there were lots of tamil publishers in the stall. Only in this fair I knew there were a lot of Tamil books and novels to be read.

My younger uncle had told me that to know Spiritualism, there is no good book in any language other than Tamil. This book has simple explanations for most of the religious practices in Hinduism and provides the logical reason behind them.

      

I haven't read any of Vairamuthu's books. Seeing Karuvachi Kaviyam and Kallikattu Idhigasam, I bought them. There were lots of books written by Sujatha and I went for Moondru Kuttrangal.

Then, I visited the Krishnamurti Foundatation stall. Krishnamurti was one of the famous philosophers.

He has written a lot of books and most of them were costly. They offered this book at a subsidized price of Rs. 50. This book was earlier published as This Matter of Culture.

I have seen Nithayanda's talks in TV and Open the door... let the breeze come in... (Kadhavai thira...Kaatru varattum...) is one of his famous works.

Though the books are printed in India, still they are costly. I went through the collections and this book felt strange to me. This book is in the form of Questions and Answers.

One of the common question is Why do we worry?

It was already 5'o clock and I decided to leave. Then, I saw a book on Pregnancy and went inside the stall. There was a book on Sex. I just went through a few pages and it was very interesting. This book is a compilation of all the questions and answers available in Doctor NDTV. The series includes Pregnancy, Child Development and Adolescence too. I have planned to buy them in the future.

As I was moving to the next stall, I found a book on Diabetes. This book is the Indian version of Diabetes for Dummies.

Soon after coming out of the venue, I found a lot of old book sellers on the pavement. I didn't have the intention to buy, still I went and saw the books. Now, I have decided to buy books only at the book fair. Just waiting for the 34th Book fair.