Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: Indian Social Club (ISC) has announced that it will start its four-day book fest from April 11.
The exhibition and sale of books is being held in partnership with the Indian embassy. The fest seeks to celebrate 70 years of Indian independence.
“Al Bhaj Books, the premier distributors of books in Oman, in partnership with ISC Oman and under the aegis of the Indian Embassy will hold an exhibition and sale of books called Bookfest 2018 from April 11-14 for the benefit of adult and children book lovers in Oman,” an official statement by ISC read.
The release added that there would be a variety of books in several languages on display.
“As part of the celebration of 70 years of Independence, the book fest will have dedicated sections for 12 different languages, including Hindi, English, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu and Arabic.
“The display in the ISC hall will include more than 50,000 books, which will include fiction and non-fiction titles, academic books, study guides, including grammar books, cookery, craft and coloring books and charts for all ages,” the release added.
Mr P M Shoukath Ali, Managing Director of Al Bhaj books, said: “We are extremely happy that we had the opportunity to arrange this book fest in association with ISC and the Indian Embassy. We are also proud that as soon as we approached National Book Trust (NBT), India, they immediately obliged and helped us in arranging such a wide selection of books in various languages.”
He added: “Book fest 2018 will also be a good experience for visitors, as they will get an opportunity to interact with the famous Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket scientist Nambi Narayanan, who is coming to Oman especially for the exhibition.”
Narayanan will be addressing an invited audience at the Indian Social Club Hall on April 12. Sathish Nambiar, Chairman of Indian Social Club, said: “It would become an annual event to foster the habit of reading among children and adults alike.”
“The various regional language sections will also help the young generation in the Indian community read books in their mother tongue and inculcate in them a love of the language,” he added.
On the sidelines of the book fest, different competitions are also being organised for children. Two quizzes, a senior quiz for classes nine to 12 and a junior quiz for classes five to eight will be conducted, in addition to other competitions, which include colouring competitions and an English poetry recitation competition.
Entry is free and registration for competitions can be done at the ISC reception on or before April 4, 2018. For more information, ISC may be contacted on 2470 1347.
