The Basant Book Festival, BITS Pilani’s own literary extravaganza, was conducted from the 29th of January to the 3rd of February. The event was held at the New Workshop building, in a break from tradition; Akshay having been the staging area for more than 15 years and a single bookseller participating.
E-books were introduced for the first time in this year’s edition. Terminals and LCD screens were provided for students to browse through the catalogue and purchase from it. The highlights of the week-long festival included a book launch by the Director Dr. A K Sarkar and several talks by the eminent faculty of BITS Pilani and CSIR-CEERI. The launched book, Kuch Kisse- BITS Pilani Canteen Se is authored by Chirag Katri, a Phy/ENI student from BITS Pilani. The talks mostly exalted the art of reading and encouraged students to indulge in it, including one on how reading acts as a stress buster, amongst several others. The talk was delivered by Dr. Chandra Shekhar, a senior professor emeritus from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
Book introductions and storytelling events by students from MATRIX were held on a daily basis. Kavi Sammelan by the Poetry Club, and music recitals from Gurukul members in the Sham-e-Ghazal all helped increase attendance.
This year witnessed a larger footfall in terms of both, BITSians and school students. ‘We didn’t leave any stone unturned in terms of publicity. Notwithstanding the fact that it was being held in BITS, we had the event publicized in all institutes across Pilani, be it schools or colleges. We even got in touch with the director of BET and requested him to encourage participation from schools under their purview. For the most part, the event saw a large number of children each day’, commented Giridhar Kunkur, the librarian. The children also spoke on “Why I like to read”, which was planned to encourage and imbibe in them the habit of reading.
The entire festival was organized by the library with inputs from faculty members on book selection, keeping in mind the courses being taught at BITS. It was funded entirely by the fee that booksellers had to pay to participate in the festival. This was also used to give gift vouchers to the club members who participated in the daily events. ‘The festival ran smoothly without a glitch. The only problem we have is the lack of a good venue to host the events. The new workshop might not be available next year’, Kunkur said.
Another concern among students was that the books were available at a much cheaper rate on Amazon or Flipkart, even with the discounts offered. ‘We didn’t receive any complaints. It wasn’t brought to the booksellers’ or our notice. If it were a legitimate concern, we would have been informed. Nevertheless, we shall try our best to set the rates similar to the pricing on any of these e-commerce stores in the coming years’, the librarian replied when asked about this.
Dr Kunkur hopes to hold the Festival on a larger and better scale next year, subject to certain conditions such as the venue. ‘We would like to make it more attractive by inviting popular authors and stage signings and reading sessions. It should turn out to be a good, well-appreciated literary event,’ he said.