Why do people go to the book fair?

Why do people go to the book fair?





If you look up any book fair, there's a high possibility that amid thousands of crowd and book pictures, you'll find hundreds of images showing people about to bite into a food item. It could be anything from garam vadas to naram rolls. For the more adventurous, there's (hold your breath) fried rice-chilli chicken, too! Gulp, burp, smile, #DinnerAtBookFair selfie! Of course, the fair is as much about `phood' as it's about selfies and er...books. However, we offer you some other `real' reasons why people absolutely and dutifully go to the book fair... 

 TO SHOW OFF
Boss, admit it -you splurged in last week's bumper sale so that you could show off. And what better place than the book fair, isn't it? If you can throw some heavy names like “Coelho“ and “Kafka“ at your friendpartner, you have truly arrived. For the not-so-bholas with the jholas, however, it's all about being seen at the right place (read, book fair), with the right company (not always books). “Me intellectual“ attitude anyone?
Yes... that!

TO BUY EVERYTHING APART FROM BOOKS -PAPER FLOWERS, BAGS...
It's a `mela' re pagal! It's absolutely mandatory to buy those ugly paper flowers with long stems, message T-shirts, oxidised and terracotta jewellery, big posters of infants, faded stamps, white and blue ceramic vases and crockery, tote and sling bags, mats, wall hangings... There's no way you won't spot at least a handful of people leaving the fair with at least one of these items. `Item', truly!

TO ENJOY FREE CONCERTS
There's always some leather band-sporting dude singing away to glory songs like Kolaveri Di, Dhoom Pichak Dhoom, Hey Jude and Roobaroo, oblivious to the crowd at the fair.
The black-tee-and torn-jeans wearing guitar gods may have graduated from melas, but a dotara, mouth organ or mandolin player is easy to find. If you spot them, the idea is to keep calm and just huddle. Books can wait.

IT'S THE IDEAL PLACE FOR BLIND DATES
C'mon, a person would have to be blind to miss the milan mela at a book fair -doesn't matter which part of the city they hail from. But if the guy says, “Oh, I know AC Milan“, and the girl quotes Begum Aktar's Piya milan hum jaib ho, it's best to give the fair a miss and blindly look for another date. At the fair, of course!

IT'S THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE IT TO THE NEWS
Really! Almost every local news channel is stationed at the fair. All you need to do is unleash your elbow, nudge others (even the reporter, if you must) and seek out the lens. Voila! You're on TV! Call your friends, family, part ner, colleagues, roommates, neighbours, maid, bari wala, cablewala and ask them to just tune into the channel. For once, the `news' can be tuned out.