[Children at NCPUL's 24th Urdu Kitab Mela in Malegaon on Sunday December 19, 2021. (Photo: ummid.com)]
Malegaon: Grim-faced and worried publishers were on Monday seen smiling and pleased as the daily sales picked up after a slow start on the opening day of the NCPUL’s 24th Kul Hind Urdu Kitab Mela (2021) in Malegaon.
NCPUL Urdu Kitab Mela, All India Urdu Book Fair 2021, was inaugurated on Saturday amid Civid-19 scare. However, most of the stalls gave a deserted look on the opening day because of what the organisers claimed the delay in getting the necessary permission from the local administration.
“The publicity campaign that we planned could not be run because of the delay by the local administration to grant us the necessary permission. Moreover when we finally got the permission - just two days before the start of the 9-day event, it was accompanied by a lot of restrictions,” an NCPUL officer told ummid.com on the condition of anonymity.
“Among other things, it was the administration’s refusal to permit the Urdu Karwan and the advisory to close the mela by 06:00 pm that cost us the most”, he added.
According to Ajmal Saeed – the officer in-charge of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) Urdu Kitab Mela in Malegaon, total book sales on the first day was little over Rs. 1,89,000/-.
“However, despite the time limit till 06:00 pm, we recovered on Sunday and recorded a total sale of about 06,32,00/-“, Ajmal Saeed said.
Both the figures are estimates and do not include the sales registered by the NCPUL’s own stalls.
The top three publishers who performed well in the first two days of the Kitab Mela are: Idarat us Siddiq, New Delhi (Rs.57,000/-), Al Hasanat Book Depot Pvt Ltd, New Delhi (Rs. 51,500/-) and Atfal Book Depot, Malegaon (Rs. 47,000/-).
The first two days sale at the Urdu Kitab Mela 2021 is a stark contrast of what the event had registered in 2014 in Malegaon. As per the sales data provided by the NCPUL, the opening day sale was Rs.04,65,194/- and a whopping Rs.10,24,400/- on the second day of the book fair in 2014.
“Both the sales figures were record breaking”, the NCPUL officials had said back in 2014.
Meanwhile, Malegaon Prant Office has finally agreed for some concession, accepting the organiser's request to extend the time limit. With this, the NCPUL officials are hopeful that sales this year too will pick up in the coming days.
“We hope to improve the sales further as the administration has granted us the permission to keep open the Kitab Mela till 08:00 pm and book lovers from different places are now thronging the venue in large numbers”, Ajmal Saeed said.
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