CHENNAI: Paintings of Van Gogh, Bob Marley and Pablo Neruda overlook Salt Publication’s booth at YMCA Ground, Nandanam. Among the many stalls at the Chennai Book Fair, this one is unique and attracts several audiences. Last year at the Chennai Book Fair, this publishing house struggled to get a space. Determined and not ready to give up, the members and writers of Salt set shop outside the ground. “We weren’t allowed to put up a stall as we weren’t a member of the Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association of South India (BAPASI) which organises the book fair.
When we requested to get the membership, they kept asking questions about the funds and the process of admission didn’t happen. In protest, we put up our stall outside even though it wasn’t allowed. But, people were respectful and they supported us,” shares Muthurasa Kumar, author and part of the publishing house. The story changed in 2024.
What we see this year at the 47th edition of the book fair is a slight improvement in accommodating a variety of book stalls from the past years, according to the regular visitors. In a pile of classic novels, children’s books, bestsellers from all over the world, comics, and regional hits, we see speeches and writings of Dr BR Ambedkar, anti-caste literature, books dealing with LGBTQIA+ issues and so on. Visiting the book stalls, CE tracks down the uniqueness in the latest edition of the book fair.
Revolutionising through words
About this year’s additions, SK Murugan, secretary, BAPASI says, “Publishing houses like Kavitha Publications, TR Publications, The Alliance, Arunodaya, Poompuhar are veterans and have been selling books for a long time. This year we have new additions like Salt Publication, Dravidian stock, Neelam Books, Thirunangai Press (LLP), and Her Stories including books that deal with caste issues, discrimination, and feminism.”
Dr Ambedkar’s photo and writings take prominence at JaiBhim Foundation’s stall. Making its debut at the fair, they hope to reach more people with their translated version of Babasaheb’s writings. Senthilkumar, a member of JaiBhim Foundation, shares, “We have translated complete works of Ambedkar. We aim to reach more villages and share the wisdom with them. So far, we have reached 6,000 villages in Tamil Nadu.” The complete volume is available for pre-booking at a cost of Rs 12,000 and people can avail it through Jaibhim.net.
At Neelam Books, writings and teachings of revolutionaries like Malcolm X, Jyotirao Phule, Savitribai Phule, Thanthai Periyar, apart from Babasaheb, welcome the bookworms. Vijay, an organiser, shares that they are expecting a good response even though the rains are proving to be a dampener. “We have introduced a few new works this year too,” he adds.
The varieties of books — from Tamil translations of Emily Dickinson’s works, and writings of Sylvia Plath to a volume of poems by contemporary writers — are neatly stacked around a vintage typewriter at Salt Publication. “This is an art hub, all our books are dedicated to art,” says Muthurasa Kumar. Author and head of the publishing house, Naran shares, “The Tamil society has different backgrounds and we want to introduce them to many works. We tailor our book covers and fonts according to the author and work with artist Mannivanan. Our publication is not a business, our books are `10-`20 lesser than mainstream ones.”
Each year, a new change
For the past 46 years, the book fair has been an important annual event in the city. By providing free entry for kids and students, it aims to promote the message of reading from diverse genres, languages and places to gain a wider perspective. Murugan shares, “When we started the book fair, there were mostly English publishing houses, selling books. Gradually, we started accommodating Tamil publishers which led to an increase in the number of stalls. In the initial years, we had only 50-100 stalls. Now there are almost 1,000 stalls.” CE finds that lovers of Tamil literature and translations have innumerable options to choose from.
The association has members from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, New Delhi, and Telangana. Over the years, even though natural calamities and other adversities tried to press pause, the organisation continued to conduct the book fair. “Usually the book fair commences from the first week of January every year but during the pandemic years, we had to postpone it and conduct it after a few months. Even during the 2015 Chennai floods, we somehow managed to go ahead with the fair. This year, thankfully the rainfall and floods didn’t hinder our process and we are happy to conduct this,” says Murugan. He asserts that the quality of the books takes priority in selecting the publishing houses and the members allot stalls based on their books, writers and the topics they deal with. The entry is free for both college and school students and for others, the entry fee is Rs 10.
“The Puzhal prison department has set up stall 333 where people can donate books. The plan is to strengthen the reading department at the jail,” informs Murugan. Apart from the book stalls, there are food booths, handicraft shops and t-shirt stores. There are also daily programmes like book reading sessions, discussions with writers and other literary talks.
The book fair is on till January 21. The timings are from 2 pm to 8.30 pm on working days and from 11 am to 8.30 pm on holidays. Murugan confirms that daily almost 5,000 people visit the fair and during the weekend the number increases to almost 15,000. With this year’s responses, the organisation hopes to include more stalls next year with even more diversity.
(With inputs from Archita Raghu)