Hyderabad Book Fairs and Book Reading Culture

Hyderabad Book Fair opens for the 26th year in Necklace Road. In the last 26 years, I would have missed only once when I was abroad. What pains me about this book fair is that the quality of book fair has been only deteriorating over the years. Shifting of venue from Chikkadpally to Nizam College grounds to Necklace Road hasnt done wonders to the book-reading culture nor improved the Society's thi...nking level. The tragedy of Hyderabad is that people here don't read books or read books as much as a Book Fair Organiser feels encouraged. The footfalls are good but many stall owners tell me not many buy at the Fair. I just had a cursory round - the customary first round and was apalled at the quality and the vision of the Fair. The entry ticket is priced at Rs.5/-. That tells how diffident the organisers feel about footfalls. Five Rupees is not even inflation-adjusted since 1990s - might as well open the doors for free. The parking and pop-corn and chat items outside the Venue of Book Fair actually fetch more than the price for entry. Jewellery Fairs and Career Exhibitions fetch higher entry charges. Besides, the choice of stalls has always been unimaginative. This time, you even have a stall sellilng Pirated Hollywood DVDs apart from Handwriting Analysis workshops and Multi-color Web offset Printers and Maps and White-board markers and Games. How the hell are all these related to Book-Reading and Book-lovers? In one of the book-shops, the owner was haggling with a Distributor at what discount to sell a book that's exclusively marketed by them. Its titled: "Tragedy of Hyderabad". I didn't even bother to look at that book. Might be an apt description of the book-culture in Hyderabad. This is a city where parties are thrown to drown beer, play pool, brag about the acres of land in Vikarabad and Gandipet, and of course, the latest political and filmi issues. Books? A Big No. I have been to International Book Fairs in New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai and dream of going for Frankfurt one day - and wished that Hyderabad will have a Fair thats worthy of world renown. Now, I am reconciled that the city will get the Book Fair it deserves. Even the Vijayawada and Vizag Book Fairs get more book volumes according to the organisers - and atleast people there are starved of good books to see and read and buy. Hyderabad Blues for book-lovers!