The Basant Book Festival 2019, which was held from the 4th to the 9th of February at the Student Activity Centre (SAC), saw more than 25,000 books from various genres on sale. The annually held week-long event, conducted to lead up to the Basant Panchami festival, has been running for more than two decades now. This year’s edition saw participants from many schools and colleges in Pilani flocking to the event.

The English Press Club spoke to the librarian, Mr. Giridhar Kunkur, about the festival and its growth since its inception. Until 2014, the book festival was conducted on the mezzanine floor of Akshay, and the space constraints were a hindrance to its functioning. It was held in the new workshop building for following two years, until it was shifted to SAC for this year’s edition. According to the librarian, the shift in venue proved to be a blessing in disguise; due to its accessibility, there was a noticeable increase in participation this year.

‘The book fair was held mainly for the benefit of the students of BITS Pilani’, said Mr. Kunkur. There was a 25% discount offered on all books, which is higher than the over-the-counter discount offered by most bookshops. The book vendors and publishers came from Delhi and Pilani, and all academic titles sold were the most recent editions. ‘We place a condition upon the publishers; any book which they have on display should have been published no earlier than 2017. We want to bring in quality books’, said the librarian. When asked what was different this time around, the librarian stated that the library purchased a considerable number of e-books from the vendors during the festival, which are available for the BITSians to peruse through the online library portal.

Apart from being a book fair, the Basant Book Festival also doubled up as a sort of literature fest, with seven events held during the week. On Day Zero of the festival was the “Design a Bookmark to Save Lives” Contest, which was conducted in association with the Blood Donation Camp 2019. Although the conversion ratio for registrations to participants wasn’t high, some wonderfully conceptualized bookmarks were presented by the students. Harshdeep Singh Chhabra, Abhishek Jain, and Himani Sharma won the first, second, and third place respectively. Their bookmarks were digitized and are now on sale at the Stationery Counter of the library.

The festival was inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor, following which faculty members delivered a talk on the title “The Writers Who Have Inspired Me”. Professors from different disciplines shared their views and experiences. Day Two saw the Panel Discussion on ‘Print Books vs E-Books’, chaired by Prof. Chandrashekhar. The panel, which consisted of four faculty members and four students, seemed to agree that, in the end, the choice between print and e-books boils down to the reader’s preference. While print books provide an intimately rustic experience, e-books have greater portability and ease of access.

“Sur Sandhya”, the musical event by members of faculty and Gurukul was hosted on the 6th of February. They offered musical renditions that were related to literature. Mr. Giridhar Kunkur pointed out that such an event was integral to the festival, as it added more flavour and celebrated one form of art through another.

The next day’s events—”Stories of Poets” and the screening of the short film, “The Little Prince”—were conducted by the Poetry Club and Matrix respectively. The library has a long-standing association with these student-run bodies, and the librarian stated that contributions and ideas for events from all BITSians were more than welcome and essential towards making the festival student-driven.

On the final day, students from different schools in Pilani talked about their favorite authors in the event, “Mere Priya Lekhak”. The ten participants were all faculty children, and Mr. Kunkur explained why this was not a conducted as a contest. According to him, the sanctity of a child’s effort is maintained if competitiveness is not part of the equation. The festival drew to a close with prize distribution ceremony for the winners of the bookmark design contest..