THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Book Festival, the largest international book festival in the State, will begin on Thursday. Organised as part of the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival, the ten-day festival will be worth a visit not just for the variety of books, but also for the various innovative programmes. Minister for Culture K C Jospeh will inaugurate the book festival at 4 pm on Thursday on the campus of the Sanskrit College. The first day will also witness ‘guru pooja’ to doyens of Malayalam literature. Sooranadu Kunjanpillai, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Pala Narayanan Nair, Changapuzha Krishnapillai and Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon will be given tributes by D Babu Paul, K S Ravikumar, Kuriakose Kumabalakuzhy, Pirappancode Murali and P K Rajasekharan respectively. GurumulkazhchaAn exhibition of the collection of literature related to Sree Narayana Guru is a speciality of the festival. Health Minister Adoor Prakash will inaugurate this exhibition. The books were collected by publisher A Lalsalam. Copyright tableCopyright table, an innovative programme where writers and publishers will get a chance for copyright exchange, has been arranged as part of the book festival. According to Thumbamon Thomas, director-in-charge of the State Institute for Children’s Literature, a number of writers and publishers have registered for the programme.Children’s campVarious children-oriented programmes are a highlight of the book festival. ‘Sargavedi, a three-day camp for children, will begin on Friday. John Samuel is the camp director. The first session will be about environment conservation. Poet Sugathakumari and journalist Mathews Varghese will speak on the topic Venam, Harithabhumikku kaval’. The second session will be about drawing. Sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman and Lalithakala Academy chairman K A Francis will talk on ‘Vara-ruchikal.’ Football player I M Vijayan and Speaker G Karthikeyan will be the guests in the afternoon session. On Saturday, the main topic is reading. Kerala Sahitya Akademy secretary R Gopalakrishnan and editor of ‘Bhashaposhini’ K C Narayanan will speak. Adoor Gopalakrishnan will be the guest on Saturday evening. Shashi Tharoor MP and his wife Sunanda Pushkar will be the chief guests on Chirstmas day. Children’s literature will be the topic on Monday. Achutsankar S Nair will deliver a talk. V K Adarsh will speak on Children’s literature in cyber space. Live contest for kidsA live infotainment competition for children has also been arranged as part of the book festival at 6 pm on Friday. Children can learn the making of ‘olappippi’, ‘olappanthu’ etc, play ‘kuttiyum kolum’ and can win prizes. A drawing and painting competition will be held on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a recital of poems by Changampuzha. A quiz and Christmas celebration too have been arranged. Children could learn ways to make ‘plavilathoppi’, Sadako crane and other toys. There will story-telling based on the stories by Takazhi on Tuesday. As part of the International Year of Chemistry, various chemical experiments that interest students will be held on Wednesday. On Thursday, the programme will be based on biodiversity. Film festivalA number of must-watch children’s movies will be shown as part of the children’s festival. They include the Chaplin film ‘The Kid’ on Friday, Majid Majidi’s ‘Colour of Paradise’ on Saturday, ‘Children of Heaven’ on Sunday, ‘ET’ on Monday, ‘Bicycle Thieves’ on Tuesday, ‘Wall E’ on Wednesday, ‘Hugo and Josephine’ on Thursday and ‘Modern Times’ on December 30.
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