A confluence of art forms and cultures of all the states combined together gave the theme of the Delhi World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan its literal meaning.
Cultural heritage of India or “Vividh Bharat”, the theme of the fair organised by the National Book Trust, had its work displayed at the Theme Pavilion. Ancient scriptures written in various languages, along with tribal dance and folk music performances, was what caught the public’s attention.
Many scripts such as Devnagri and Udia written in Sanskrit and Naksh written in Arabic language were the interesting ones to come by. These scripts have become archives of the National Mission for Manuscripts. Some of the manuscripts were of legendary Persian saint Amir Khusro and Patanjali, who wrote the Devanagri script.
Chandubhai M. Patel and troupe from Gujarat performed Toor Thali tribal folk music dance, while Niranjan Saikia and troupe from Assam did the Sattriya dance, turning the whole environment at the pavilion into a sort of carnival.
Ankit Patel from a Gujarati dance group, which performed Ghariya Tribal dance, said, “It’s a great exposure for us. In order to perform this dance, we dress ouserlves half in men’s clothes and half in women’s clothes to depict the ‘Ardhnarishwar.’”
Not only were art forms the main focus, books on religion, science, language, animals of each nook and corner of the country were showcased. The crowd was helping themselves to computers which contained ebooks and played traditional folk songs of various regions of India.
According to Kumar Samresh, deputy director of publicity and establishment, NBT, “a lot of research” was done before selecting the theme.
