LAHORE: “I have made a solemn promise to my father to buy reading books only today,” says Khadija, a nursery class student, while looking at the stalls displaying colouring books at the 29th Lahore International Book Fair which opened at Expo Centre on Thursday.

“She is very fond of Barbie (colouring) books and has plenty of them,” elder brother Hasan added while his little sister was still avidly glancing at her ‘favourite’ stall.

Nearby, another nursery class student, Shyna Anis Paul, was getting a rainbow painted on her face under the supervision of her elder sister Hazel.

“I am here to take part in the art competition. Aapi will buy activity books,” she told Dawn near the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) stall also hosting a group of schoolchildren in uniform attending the story-telling session ‘Neelay, Peelay Mor’.

The CLF has set up the stall in collaboration with the Indian High Commission. Apart from CLF’s own publication Uran Tashtaree, books from National Book Trust, Children Book Trust and Sahitya Akademi from India were also displayed there.

Veteran columnist and chairman of Lahore Arts Council, Ataul Haq Qasimi, was ‘overjoyed’ to see rush at the fair.

“The people who claim that book reading habit is dying should visit here and see for themselves to review their assertion. It is wonderful that the pavilions displaying books on literature, history and different disciplines of science are drawing crowds. It is a healthy and welcome sign for the future of Pakistan,” he said.

Afzal Ahmad, a member of the organising committee of the Lahore International Book Fair Trust, said the 29th LIBF touted to be the largest in the events’ history with 283 stalls.

Book sellers and publishers from Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore are represented along with around a dozen publishers from India and two from Turkey, he said and added books on almost every discipline of knowledge have been displayed under one roof at special discount ranging from 15 to 70 per cent.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2015

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