KARACHI: They trickled into the allocated three halls of the Expo Centre in the morning, but as the sun began to give Karachiites that balmy winter morning feel, there was a delightful buzz caused by a host of book lovers, ranging from schoolchildren to septuagenarian bookworms, on Thursday, the opening day of the 10th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF).

It was heartening to see, in the context of what happened in Peshawar a few days back, schoolchildren coming in with a great deal of excitement to have a look at the books that they would like to read and, pocket-money permitting, buy. Students of Dhaka School were the first ones to arrive. They moved around the halls with a spring in their steps. One of their teachers, Sumera, who appeared eager to keep an eye on her students, complained that some of them seemed more interested in taking pictures. There is nothing wrong with that. Let our kids enjoy.

Zafar Sultan, who manned the Pak Book Company stall, argued that developing the culture of book reading was the only way to move in a direction where we could call ourselves civilised. He was hopeful that the turnout in the latter half of the day would improve. It did. An interesting on-sale book that Mr Sultan talked about, which has just hit the international market, was Climate change in the media. He deemed it a must read for journalists.

As far as literature buffs go, the fair will leave them spoilt for choice. Imagine a hardback copy of the celebrated Japanese author Murakami’s Kafka on the shore to be had only for Rs300. Not just that, his latest novel Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage is also available at a cheap-as-chips rate.

A decent range of Sindhi-language books are no less impressive. From Shah Jo Risalo to Aakhri umeed, a novel by Mohammad Usman Deplai, there’s quite a lot to choose from.

It was nice to see an Urdu translation of eminent Indian painter M.F. Husain’s biography, M. F. Husain ki kahani apni zabani, translated by Rafique Naqsh. Mr Naqsh, an under-discussed scholar of Urdu literature, passed away a little more than a year ago. Gems like Krishan Chander ki kahanian, Jaza aur saza (Urdu translation of Crime and Punishment) also attracted quite a few visitors’ attention.

Then a big number of people looked for religious books and the fair has many stalls from where books on religion can be purchased.

Talking to Dawn Asif Jawaid of Lahore’s Nigarshat Publishers said: “It’s good to be here. I’ve attended many fairs, but I think it’s the biggest in the country.” With reference to the Peshawar tragedy, he said: “Publishing and reading books is the only way to counter jahalat. This is the reason that we should encourage our children to come to places like this. I see a lot of people interested in reading and buying books which is a healthy sign.”

Chairman of the KIBF central committee Aziz Khalid said despite the fact that some exhibitors couldn’t make it to the event, owing to the volatile socio-political situation, a good number of them had put their books on display. He claimed that readers could find books on any subject — literature, economics, technology, religion, etc — in the fair.

International exhibitors too had a noticeable share of visitors on the first day of the exhibition. Some men of letters were seen rushing towards Indian stalls, such as Random Publishers, to buy books before they went out of stock. Gulzar’s collection of short stories, Devrhi, was one such book.

The fair, organised by the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association in collaboration with the National Book Foundation, is open till Dec 22.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014