Patna book fair to start from December 7

Patna, Dec 6: The state capital of Bihar is all set to host the ''Patna Book fair'' tomorrow at the historical Gandhi Maidan here.

The 12-day long book fair, organised under the banner of Centre for Readership Development (CRD), will conclude on December 18.

Addressing a press conference here, Patna book fair convenor Amit Jha said about 570 leading publishers from across the country and abroad would set up their stalls in the fair.

He said the theme for this year's fair is ''youth of Bihar, dream and direction'' and the fair would be dedicated to the youth in the state.

'' We have set up special counters for career counselling of students so that they could decide about their future courses to be pursued,'' Mr Jha stated.

Mr Jha said apart from book stalls, stages would be erected for the cultural programmes, including drama skit and street plays, to entertain the crowds, ''we have included programmes like 'bioscope and media leader' in the entertainment segment.

The biscope would include presentation of documentries like 'Sonal Mansingh' by famous Filmmaker Prakash Jha, 'Patliputra to Patna' made by Girish Ranjan and 'Naina-Jogin' a National award winning documentry on painting.'' Famous lyricist Gulzar, dance maestro Sonal Mansingh and popular filmmaker Prakash Jha are expected to grace the occassion, Mr Jha stated.

UNI