Inquilab Festival a hit among book lovers in Nawanshahr

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, September 30

The three-day Inquilab Festival that started in Nawanshahr on Thursday to commemorate the 116th birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh concluded today. The festival witnessed a huge rush outside the book stall put up by the Language Department. Starting from children and youngsters to the elderly, people were seen looking, appreciating and buying a range of books in Punjabi and Hindi.

Interestingly, several books in Urdu were also available at the stall. Gagandeep Singh and Sandeep Singh from the department who were present at the stall said that they were overwhelmed looking at the response. “People coming to buy books in large numbers is a great sign,” they said.

‘Mahan Kosh’, an encyclopaedia of Punjabi language was one of the most appreciated books at the festival. The dictionary was written by Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha. The book has around 1,250 pages and is considered the best guide to Punjabi language as it has old maps of India, Lahore and pictures related to history that are otherwise hard to find. According to writers and officials of the department, one can find every possible Punjabi word and its meaning in the book.

The officials from the department said that apart from this, Hindi Kosh was also popular among the visitors. The buyers also kept asking for books related to the great martyr Shaheed Bhagat Singh. “I must say that it was great to see people thronging this stall over any other stall,” Gagandeep Singh, a staff member present at the stall, said.

“Police personnel came in large numbers and they bought a lot of books for their children to read,” he added.