Kavi Sammelan Patna 1991
PATNA BOOK FAIR 1991 : 1-15 DECEMBER
REMEMBRANCE
A kavi-sammelan on the topic ‘Rashtriya Ekta Tatha Vishwa Shanti’ had taken place on Saturday 14th December in which Dr Shanti Jain, Sarvashree Krishna Kumar Vidyarthi, Sri Balbhadra Kalyan, Sri Bhola Prasad Singh ‘Tomar’, Sri Kapileshwar Sharma ‘Tarun’, Sri Bhagwati Prasad Dwivedi, Sri Rameshwar Prasad Choudhary, Dr Mehta Nagendra Singh, Sri Saryu Singh ‘Suman’, Sri Chandra Prakash ‘Maya’, Smt Vindhyavaasini Dutt ‘Tripathi’, Sri Rajkumar Prasad, Sri Vidyacharan Sharma, Sri Ashok Manoram, Sri Lal Mandal Johani, Sri Gopal Sharan Ambastha, Sri Radha Raman Mishra, Major Balbir Singh, Sushri Shanti Suman et cetera had participated. A number of cultural organisations participated to hold its shows at the event. Theatre organisations like the Nirman Kala Manch, the IPTA and Priya had presented ‘Andher Nagari Choupat Raja’ and ‘Bargad Kutta’ (two short plays), ‘Saudagar’ an adaptation of Brecht’s play ‘Exception And the Rule’ and ‘Sama-Chakeva'(ballet) respectively.
Patna Book Fair 1991 finally concluded on Sunday, the 15th December at 9.00pm for which the closing ceremony had taken place on Saturday, 14th December. Addressing the participants the Special Guest of the function, the Education Minister Dr Ram Chandra Purve had said that the state government had decided to give all help for organising book fairs. Apart from this no taxes would be taken from the stalls. He pointed out that during the fifteen days of the event, a new culture contrary to the consumerism had been created. This had been done with a view to promote education and popularity of books.
The closing ceremony was presided over by the then Chairman of the Bihar Legislative Assembly Dr Ghulam Sarvar. The Chief Justice of Patna High Court Sri Bimal Chandra Basak was the Chief Guest. He had been a daily visitor of the fairground and was also associated with many other programmes under the project. Sri Basak suggested that a trust should be built-up under which two poems each of twenty young, unknown poets should be published.
He said that he will bear the loss, if any, they would have the profit. He also suggested that books 📚 be translated from all Indian languages with Hindi and vice versa. The then Vice Chancellor Patna University Dr M. Mohiuddin and Prof Jabir Hussain, the then Chairman of the Minorities Commission also attended the function as Guest of Honour and Special Invitee. Dr Mohiuddin said that the beginning of civilisation could be traced back to the time that reading and writing began. Books 📚 were the greatest transmitter of knowledge and culture.
The speaker 🔊 of the assembly, Dr Ghulam Sarvar while releasing a collection of Hindi poems ‘Ek Nai Ret Bhari’ written by Prof Jabir Hussain agreed with the opinion of the Chief Justice Sri Bimal Chandra Basak and said that there should be a co-ordinated effort from the side of executive, judiciary and legislators to promote books and reading habits. Dr D.D. Guru, Patron of Patna Book Fair, said that the event had mainly been organised with a view to create mass awareness among people towards books. His sentiments that the event was a mode of social service was echoed by every speaker 🔊 on the occasion. He reiterated that their mains of creating awareness, motivation and then create conditions for purchases had been somewhat achieved. Among others who spoke on the occasion also include Prof Jabir Hussain.
Patna Book📚Fair is a movement. A claim by a publisher, distributor, bookseller or an individual to the effect that this movement has crystallized due to his or her efforts would be a misnomer. It would amount only to living in a fool’s paradise. To arrange an exhibition of own remainder titles in a dinghy place may be the brainchild of a person or on individual but to hold such a massive national event required regular thinking, continuous planning, suggestions from well-wishers, participation of cross sections of the society and untiring efforts by a team of dedicated persons. Holding of such event in the absence of these elements would be the eighth wonder of the world 🌎. India is a vast country having over 1000 million people including Bihar and Jharkhand which are vast states having ten crore people.
*We recall that the first book exhibition in Bihar’s capital had been organised in 1971 by the Central Government [Dept of Education] with our full support in a relatively small area spanning 1200 sft at Lala Lajpat Rai Bhawan, Chajjubag, Patna with 7 participants from India and 1 from abroad. We also remember that although tht National Book Trust, India (NBT: राष्ट्रीय पुस्तक न्यास, भारत) has had been established in 1950 by someone (?), it is actually Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who had given birth to NBT — as semi-govt department — during the financial year of 1963-64, that is, six months on or before his sad demise dated 27th May, 1964. We also recall that the National Book Trust, India had also organised its first ever world book fair in 1972 in another small area spanning 20000 sft at Windsor Place, Delhi with 224 participants drawn from India and abroad.
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