National Book Trust Organizes Gomti Book Fair 2022 in Lucknow

on Oct 31, 2022

On Saturday, the Gomti Book Festival was officially launched at Gomti Riverfront Park with the theme of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.

The National Book Trust (NBT), which has been in operation for 66 years, organized the book fair, which is being held in conjunction with the Lucknow Municipal Corporation and the Lucknow Development Authority, for the first time in the City of Nawabs. The nine-day fair will end on November 6 after continuing for nine days.

More than 80 book kiosks from various publishing firms from Delhi, Jaipur, and other states, including publishers from Lucknow, were present at the event.

Former UP Legislative Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit served as the inauguration's principal guest. He was accompanied on the dais by NBT members, Indian novelist and poet Yatendra Mishra, and divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob.

There were bookworms of all ages in the audience, but there were particularly many schoolchildren from the City Montessori School, the Lucknow Public School, as well as government school students from the Rashtriya Balika Inter College, the Army Public School, and students from the NGO Vigyan Foundation, among others. Over the course of the nine days of the event, many schools will be visiting.

The necessity of encouraging young people in India to read regularly was stressed by the speakers, who also emphasized that the event's organizers planned to add it to the city's calendar of events. In her speech, Jacob stated that the event "may become something the inhabitants look forward to annually and can also become a tourism attraction for tourists, providing for a cultural interchange between states."

In her speech, Anita Bhatnagar Jain, a trustee of NBT, asked parents to acquire more books for their kids. "After talking to the kids here, I discovered that the majority of them just read textbooks. It is important to encourage kids to read picture books. It's crucial to have a relationship with literature, she continued.

There will be simultaneous activities taking place at the Gomti Riverfront grounds on all of the fair's operating days. The Children's Corner behind the row of bookstalls hosted an interactive session with elementary school students shortly after the opening at which time the kids took part in a fun quiz on India and other topics.

On October 31, there will be a celebration honoring Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, according to Col. Yuvraj Mallick, director of NBT. Beginning on October 30, a Yuva Corner will also be established, with organized activities for kids and young people.

Govind Prasad, chairman of NBT, stressed the value of supporting and promoting new authors in his speech. He also said how, thanks to the PM Yuva Mentorship Yojana, they were able to discover several young authors who jointly write in 22 regional languages in addition to English.

During the official opening, three young authors who had been chosen as a part of the PM Yuva Mentorship Yojana were also honored.

Kainaat Arif, 16, who was honored at the event, stated that it gives authors like her a tremendous opportunity to hone their craft.

"My teacher pushed me to attempt to apply for this program, and several months later I learned that I had been chosen. The Trust is handling everything from editing to publication to distribution to printing, and I have already saved up the grant money I received for my education fund.