Today I visited Seoul International Book fair 2013 which is being held at COEX, Seoul. India is the ‘Guest Country’ for this year so it has been given the most prominent space in the pavilion. More than 20 publications from India are participating in the event, national Book Trust being the biggest one.
Unfortunately, the Indian pavilion didn’t have a good collection of books. There were some books on Mahatma Gandhi and a few other prominent Indian personalities, some books on economics and arts. More than 50% books were rhyme of comic books for children which looked crappy when compared to glossy children books available on the Korean stalls. There was almost no books as far as literature, Indian History, society, culture etc. are concerned. It looked exactly like I expected -a typical stall managed by Indian government employees. There were sleepy looking auntijis siting on information desks which has no interest in even greeting visitors.
Even though the collection was really crappy, there were so many books that I wanted to buy but the worst thing was that the books were only for display. I really couldn’t get the meaning of this kind of exhibition of books. Books are not handicrafts or art structures to be looked at. They are to be read. Thanks to my beautiful Korean friend, an uncle at the stall got impressed by her beauty and gave us two books for free. 🙂 So ant bhala to sab bhala.
sasa
sa
asa
खूबसूरत दोस्त और बाकी भी। 🙂