Book Fair

Story to nahi but yaadein hain kayi….

This painting is very old…almost 9 years I guess

Almost a decade ago…I was still in school. I was staying with my parents and my brother in the most beautiful town in the world, Jamshedpur. Place where I grew up, place where I have spent my teen age…place I call home.

I loved the city from the day I set my foot for the first time. Well anyone living in Patna would feel the same way. I loved the city for how organized it was its greenery, parks and for the events like Book Fair.

Book Fair used to be held and is still being held in every winter Nov-Dec at Tagore Society. It was the mausam and the people that made it an experience. Every year I used to save money to buy a novel and papa was more than happy to buy painting and sketching books, so I never needed to save money for that.

I used to love the book fair as we could get away with one day’s evening study. My brother and I, both loved eating there (actually we both just love eating…be it anywhere), we loved choosing from different stalls of chowmein, Pav Bhaji and egg roll. But our favorite was the espresso coffee…for the very simple reason that it was otherwise available only at shaadies.

I really don’t know how to put in worlds, the feeling of being in book fair.

Melodious tune in the air, chill air and funti without sweater, papa just content in walking with us and making payment (I wonder if he ever bought any book for himself), mumma busy in looking at almost every hindi sahitya ki kitab and buying many at the end, and myself looking at so many books that I wanted to buy but never did. Well, I always wanted to buy Mills and Boon’s (have already mentioned I was in my teens)…but no one would agree to it.

This painting is a true copy of one of the paintings from the book, papa bought me. This was the first time my jhopra’s were so colorful…first time I had left paper untouched in places for the effect of light. I have learnt a lot while copying this painting. The Best part about this painting is the proud face of my parents when they would show this to their friends who would visit our home.