The Children’s Book Fair

Meenakshi, the main organizer of the Book Fair, was also one of the founders of Ilaignarkal Education Centre, the first outreach school in Auroville started in 1976 for the Auroville workers and their families. Many served by the school were first-generation students and Meenakshi observed the great enthusiasm with which her students would handle their textbooks. She resolved to start a book fair to give them access to a wider selection of reading materials to supplement their studies. 

“Children have a thirst to feel the book, to sit with the book,” explains Meenakshi, who has been affectionately nicknamed “Puthaka-akka” (Book-sister, in Tamil) by the devoted children who regularly come for each of the Book Fairs.

The Book Fair was originally held in Bharat Nivas, but shifted to Ilaignarkal for the last four editions. While the Book Fair was originally intended as an annual event, it has been three years since the last one because of lack of funding. But this year, the Foundation for World Education was able to provide the necessary financial support. Further goodwill was shown by SAIIER which provided a bus to ferry groups of children from the bioregion through Auroville to the book fair. Student groups and teachers from many of Auroville’s schools and outreach schools also came to the book fair. 

This year, books from close to 30 publishers around Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry were collected together by Kapilan Publications, the book fair’s partner in Pondicherry, who selected the books and set up the stalls in the school. While all ages are encouraged to come, the books were primarily geared toward a 5th grade reading level. However, much younger children also came and enjoyed the illustrated books, while parents tended to peruse the large selection of books from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville Press.

The most popular books remained those from the ancient poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar and the nationalist poet Bharati, as well as the ever-useful Tamil-English dictionary. 

“I am actually targeting the teachers also,” says Meenakshi, “So that they see what new kinds of books are available now.”

 “I tell the children to save their money all through the year so that they can buy books. And for financially disadvantaged students at Ilaignarkal, opportunities are given to earn some pocket money by making handicrafts. Some children also decided to enlarge the impact of the book fair by gifting a book to their parents.

This year’s book fair also offered far more than just the book stalls. Entering the fair, children were offered “energetic” water infused with cardamom and holy basil and herbal tea along with healthy snacks. Stalls with fabric painting and stone sculptors brought additional energy to the event. The middle of the school had been transformed, with tables covered with an appealing selection of books from the mobile library collection, around which teachers held singing sessions and storytelling for the children. Nearby was an art area where the children could make clay balls with seeds from the Ilaignarkal neem trees to put inside the Ganesh idol next month during Ganesh Chaturthi, thus spreading Auroville neem trees all over the bioregion. 

And the books were given a human dimension with the visit of several notable authors. Meenakshi herself is a celebrated poet and has written numerous poems in Tamil for both adults and children. At the beginning of the book fair, a Dharmapuri-based author of books on organic farming passed by the festival, and later literary attendees included authors and editors specializing in children’s theatre, children’s songs, musicology, poetry, peace work, and local folklore.  

The eight day Book Fair, which attracted 300 children and adults, has given a tremendous boost to the 

reading culture of the Auroville bioregion  and provided a wonderful excursion for its numerous students.

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Meenakshi and Ilaignarkal Education Centre spearhead several other literary initiatives in addition to the Children’s Book Fair. Since 1997, they have published Auroville Seydhi Madal, a monthly Tamil magazine which spans the topics of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and Tamil culture and history. Every issue contains at least one page targeting women and one targeting children. In addition to circulation around Auroville, the magazine has proven to be popular in the Tamil Departments of universities within the state. Due to the widespread distribution of the magazine, Ilaignarkal also benefits from an on-going literary exchange with devotees of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother as well as Tamil scholars. Meenakshi estimates that every month, she receives 55 Tamil journals from various publishing houses and between 5 to 10 books to be reviewed in the magazine.

“So Auroville’s name is there alongside the major Tamil educational institutions,” says Meenakshi. 

As a result, Ilaignarkal is able to offer workshops and seminars that draw people from all over the state of Tamil Nadu. For the last few years, the events have been particularly focused on the topic of children’s literature. Ilaignarkal has been able to invite well-recognized Tamil children’s book authors, such as Dr Velu Saravanan, Prof (late) M.L. Thangappa, and Dr. Kriungai Sethupathy who have won the Bal Sahitya Puraskar, an annual award for children’s literature given by India’s National Academy of Letters .

These initiatives have greatly benefitted the educators in Auroville and its bioregion by bringing the richness of the Tamil language and literary tradition to the Ilaignarkal campus.