Chinar Book Festival: Valley’s Biggest Book Fair & Literary Festival starts on Aug 17 at SKICC

BY EOK NEWS DESK

Srinagar, Aug 13: The Chinar Book Festival is set to take place at SKICC, Srinagar, from 17 to 25 August through the collaborative efforts of the National Book Trust, India (Ministry of Education, Govt of India) and the District Administration Srinagar. The first national book festival in the valley will also see participation from National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL). This nine-day book fair, held in front of the picturesque Dal, will feature more than 200 stalls providing access to books in various languages including English, Urdu, Kashmiri, Hindi, Dogri, and other Indian languages. The event will offer special discounts and an opportunity for readers to engage with books from over a thousand publishers nationwide.

Srinagar Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar Dr. Bilal Mohiuddin Bhat, in a press conference held at the Winter Hall of SKICC on Tuesday said, “Chinar Book Festival, organized from 17th to 25th August, will be the first National Book Festival and the biggest book fair of Kashmir Valley. There has not been any festival of such a large scale in Srinagar for a long time, hence this is a great opportunity for the people of Srinagar, where amidst the books, readers will be able to participate in various programs related to literature, art and culture. These programs will be organized in three parts.

Creative writing workshops like Calligraphy, Story Telling, Caricature, Dyeing Competition, Art Workshop, Slogan Writing Competition, Puppet Craft, Vedic Mathematics and many other creative writing workshops will be organized for children from 10 am to 1 pm. There will be career oriented workshops for the youth from 2 pm to 4 pm. They will get an opportunity to talk to big litterateurs on art, literature and culture. So far, more than 50 thousand children have registered for this mega event.” Dr. Bilal urged the people of Srinagar to come to the Chinar Book Festival and make the festival a success. He also informed that five free buses will be run from Ghantaghar to SKICC to reach the book festival.

Speaking on the Chinar Book Festival, Yuvraj Malik, Director, National Book Trust, India, said, “This book festival is organized by the people of the Valley and for the people of the Valley, where readers will find more than 200 book stalls. Here the youth will get a chance to meet famous artists. Kashmir is the land of scholars and poets. Kashmir is heaven and books are also associated with heaven. This will also be the biggest book festival of Urdu literature till date. The visitors will understand the cultural heritage of Jammu & Kashmir through ICHR’s photo exhibition and will also be able to know about India’s development journey in space through ISRO’s photo exhibition organized keeping in mind the National Space Day.

Malik also said that bagless day is celebrated in all the schools of the country and it provides an opportunity for the parents and teachers to bring children to the book festival, it will be a unique learning experience for them. During the book festival Authors will also get an opportunity to release their books at the Literary Stage, Chinar Talks.

In addition to Publications of participants such as Sahitya Akademi, Publication Department, Sangeet Natak Akademi, NCERT, National Book Trust-India, Mehta Book Company, Gulshan Books, Motilal Banarsidas, and Rekhta; over 1000 other private publishers will be available in this grand literary festival. The festival promises a diverse collection of books including fiction, non-fiction, classics, mythology, biography, dictionary, and poetry.

The literary discourse at Chinar Talks include discussion on Kashmir in Films & Literature, Poetry, its rich heritage in performing arts by eminent scholars and artists such as Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, Ashwath Bhat, Vishal Bhardwaj , Mir Sarwar, Dr. Sangeeta Gundecha, Pt. Abhay Rustam Sopori whereas the Cultural Stage Kala-e-Kashmir will have performance by Rekha Bhardwaj, Noor Mohammad, Rahgir. Additionally there will be live performance of ghazal, mushaira, performance by bands like Shadaj, Yugh and by J&K academy.

The Chinar Book Festival aims to foster a love for reading among children and youth in the Kashmir Valley. As part of this endeavor, Rashtriya-e-Pustakalaya will provide a digital reading corner, offering readers a unique experience of exploring digital books from publishers across the country on the Rashtriya e Pustakalaya application.

Through this initiative, the District Administration Srinagar and the Ministry of Education, Government of India, aims to uphold and promote the tradition of book reading. It encourages the youth to embrace the path of knowledge and traditional wisdom, and also seeks to promote the rich literary heritage of Jammu & Kashmir at the global level.