Winter is good when it comes to travelling or visiting the places of interest and on that list, visiting the book fairs and attending literary events come surely on the top. And for the book lovers in Andhra Pradesh, this winter has brought the 29th edition of Vijayawada Book Festival. The festival has been inaugurated by the Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu and the CM of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu and is being held at PWD Swarajya Maidan ground in Vijayawada.
In the opening ceremony, the VP of India has spoken on many important issues related to literature and culture. He talked about the importance that we Indians have given to books and literature even in our ancient scriptures like Vedas. Naidu also told the visitors that books are very good friends of people and they help us in raising our living standards not only physically but mentally as well.
Opening a book certainly means opening a new world in front of us – Venkaiah Naidu implied the same when he made his remarks on Monday, in the opening ceremony of the 29th Vijayawada Book Festival.
He also did not forget to mention that literature has always given the platform for the authors irrespective of their gender, in India of course. He mentioned the names of Gargi, Maitreya and many others who have contributed very important works to our rich and vast literature. He also spoke about the importance of preserving and promoting the mother tongue. And it is a matter of fact that without preserving one’s mother tongue, the rich treasure of the culture through literature can never be accessed.
After the inauguration, the Vice President also took a round and saw the books being put on the display for sale in the festival. Book lovers who will be visiting Andhra Pradesh in recent times must go to the Vijayawada book festival and see if they can get something out of that and return with few books in their bags. Books are true companions and we should always treasure those!
by an LN contributor