34th Chennai Book Fair: a success again!

Organised by the Booksellers’ & Publishers’ Association of South India (BAPASI), the Chennai Book Fair held every year in the first two weeks of January coinciding with Sankranthi was held for the 34th time from January 4-17, 2011. The fair had started in the year 1977 with 22 stalls, which has miraculously grown to 646 stalls this year, reflecting the potential of book selling & publishing. In fact, BAPASI has a separate wing to look after the Permanent Book Fair in Connemara Library Complex where one can visit any day and buy books at 10 percent fair discount throughout the year.

Sethu Chockalingam, president; RS Shanmugam, vice president and Rama Lakshmanan, secretary of BAPASIThis year, the show was held in the spacious ground in St. George Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School at Poonamallee High Road with easy access to both Egmore & Central Railway Stations, occupying 1,50,000 sq ft area. The stalls were arranged neatly in nine parallel wings plus on three enclosure sides. The ten walk paths this year were named after prominent literary figures, namely Bharathi, Shakespeare, Ilango, Vivekananda, Avviar, Thiruvalluvar, Tagore, Kambar, Shelley and Bharathidasan.

Meanwhile, BAPASI award was conferred to Marathi writer Arjun Dangle. Also, VKR Ramanathan (Sri Indhu Publications) got an award for Best Book Publisher; E Vedagiri (Shanthi Books) got an award for Best Book Seller; KM Kothandam for Children Writer; R Natarajan for Best Translator (Tamil to English) and N Avudaiyappan, special officer, Anna Centenary Library for Best Librarian.