By Imran Inamdar
Solapur ( Maharshtra)
NCPUL (National council for promotion of Urdu Language ) had organized 21st National Level Urdu Book at Solapur from 23rd to 31 December -2017 in association with Bazm-E-Ghalib .
As per the organizers , Books costing more than 60 lakh rupees have been bought by Urdu lovers in this Mega event it was claimed to be a huge success.
Earlier the book fair was sanctioned to Khidmat-E-Khalq organization of India but It was handed over to Bazm-E-Ghalib later . Two other reputed organizations were also much interested in conducting this event.During handing over process people witnessed high level literary Drama as the tug of war was going on to grab this opportunity of conducting the same.
After getting approval from NCPUL key members of the Bazm-E-Ghalib started preparation ,Inspite of sincere efforts they couldn’t get much success in involving other so called Urdu bodies and activists. They had to face legal actions and court matters as well. Loyalty to mother tongue ,selfless service was found to be missing from the scene.
Demand of leadership ,recognition and designations was on the rise and it was really upsetting Urdu lovers .
Inspite of all these hurdles Book fair manages to get very slow start and finished in a majestic way as thousands of buyers visited during last two days and bought books of their choice as token of love and affection towards their mother tongue Urdu.
In the Book fair More than 80 book sellers across India participated in this fair and 92 Book stalls have been opened which had Books on Religion, Poetry, personality development ,literature, Children’s literature etc .
According to President of Bazm-E-Ghalib and the Co-Ordinator Basheer Parvaz, It was a huge success. He said that we have achieved our target of creating Urdu atmosphere in the city. He says, response from parents teachers ,students and poets was really appreciable ,every thing was well planned and smoothly functioned .I must thank all the NGos and societies, schools managements, Head Masters for joining hands and adding one more diamond to the crown of Urdu loving Solapur, Parvaz added further.
First two three days was not so favorable as it seemed to be failed to pull crowd Book sellers were getting poor response and losing heart from the Urdu lovers of the city. Media reports were also pointing fingers on Urdu lovers loyalty .Book sellers had also put question marks on way of planning and management. It were directly spreading a message throughout county that Solapur is famous for only Urdu cultural activities and its people are not at all interested in promoting Urdu through buying Urdu books.
But, On third and fourth day some NGOs like Akhil Bhartiye shikshak Sangh, Ahabab Foundation, Moulana Azad prathamik shikshak Co-Op society (Z.P.Teachers) ,Head Masters and Urdu lovers swung into action and started visiting Schools and appealing through whatsapp contacts and Face book to buy books . Number of activists who were not in the organizing frame jumped in the arena and did their best to attract buyers. It really worked and Kitab Mela started getting momentum.
Cultural activities like Drama, Mushayera ,competitions also played a key role in attracting people in a large number.Slowly , fair started witnessing visitors and the sale of books increased and it brought smile on the faces of Book sellers.
Delhi based Book seller Shehzad told Millttimes.com response was good as we always believe in destiny. Early days were not so good but the sale was increased in the last phase and we are going with a positive impression. Sayed Noushad Begum a Mumbai based author expressed satisfaction . she said that I had Books on Personality Development and other magazines. Although it couldn’t fulfill our expectation but last four days we received satisfactory response. Students and teachers in notable number bought books from our stall, She added.
One of the teachers NGO . Moulana Azad Prathamik Shikshak credit society had launched a scheme of gifting Books of two thousand rupees to those Zilla Parishad Primary schools who visit fair and buy two thousand rupee books for their school. President of the society Abdullah Informed that 40 Z.P primary came forward to get benefit from our offer . He said that , we have gifted nearly eighty thousand rupee books to all those 40 schools.We just did it for our language to keep alive in the young minds, It was really a great experience for all the students and parents we have got so many valuable and informative books from this fair, added Abdullah.
We felt that it is a duty of all the Urdu teachers and students to take party in such event aggressively said Sajid Shah Bhai .Dist.President of the Akhi Bharitiye Shikshak Parishad . According to Sajid ,whatsapp groups were being flooded on first and second day that “ Kitab Mela “ is not doing so well. Immediately we called the meeting of all the office bearers and decided to print ten thousand handbills and visit all the Muslim institutions. Alhamdulilha It worked and organizers have achieved satisfactory target of 60 lakh, He added further.
Besides above NGOs some young activities including Ab.Shukur Shaoor ,Head Master Aasif iqbal, Azhar Gadwal, Mahmud Nawaz, Amjad Inanmdar, Head Master Haroon Rashid Bagban ,Abid Rangrez , wasim Akram , Liberarian Rangrez, Irfan Karigar,Eijaz Manzoor Alam ,Wajahat Ab.Sattar ,Singer Md.Ayaz ,Atul Bele, Anand Badamikar,Intekhab Alam ,Raja Bagban ,Siraj Solapuri ,Anwar Comissioner,Shafi captain,Shaikh Nizamuddin ,Adv.U.N Beria ,Head Mistress Sabina Ingalgi etc have extended their selfless and voluntary services for this “kitab Mela” .
