The 33rd Hyderabad Book Fair was inaugurated on Monday evening by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.
“In India, people still talk about buying a two-bedroom or three-bedroom house. Nobody talks about a reading room in their homes. The habit of reading books is dying. Unless we get involved with children, not many people will be left who will read books,” said the Governor in her address.
Exactly 33 years after it was started with 15 stalls in the precincts of City Library in Chikkadpally, the book fair is now a humongous affair with 330 stalls sprawled over the massive NTR Stadium ground near Indira Park.
Dr. Soundararajan recalled how older members of the family used to tell stories while nowadays everyone is engrossed in digital devices.
“Literature and books have been the backbone of struggle for separate Telangana. The ideals of Mahatma Gandhi were used for the struggle,” said Minister for Tourism and Culture V. Srinivas Goud as he extolled the reading habit.
Project Telugu Wiki
On the sidelines of the event, Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan inaugurated a stall on Project Telugu Wiki. “The next wave of people who will access Internet armed with smart devices may not be English speakers. They will look for information in their regional language. This will help generate content to match that hunger for information,” he said about the collaborative project between the Telangana IT Department and International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.
The fair will be on for 10 days between 2.30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
On holidays the exhibition will be open between 12.30 p.m. and 9 p.m, informed K. Chandrmohan of Hyderabad Book Fair.
