Kashmir Turns a New Page: Chinar Book Festival Draws Youth Back to Reading

Kashmir Turns a New Page: Chinar Book Festival Draws Youth Back to Reading Today in Jammu & Kashmir, it seems all the youth are running towards SKICC for the Chinar Book Festival. Books from all over the world are here at one place and books that add new colors to our thinking, just ike a Chinar leaf. I had come here last year too. This is my favourite spot in the whole of Srinagar and I was waiting for one whole year for this exhibition, said a book lover in J&K. And I am not disappointed. I am buying two books. Whether you want to become an engineer or an artist or a writer, every book shows you a new path. Every discussion sparks a new thought. This is a very good initiative from the government. The local kids here far away from books. This initiative has been taken so that children can again turn towards books and move ahead in life, remarked a girl. There was never a book festival like this in Kashmir before. And readers like me did not have a place where they could buy books. Now the non readers also come here. There are not only books here but there is also music and cultural events, so I really enjoy coming here. Our non reader friends have also started coming here and reading books.Today we have come not just to study but to learn, to meet and to be inspired. When we talk about Kashmir, not only the beauty of the Valleys but also our culture, our stories and our knowledge come along with us. And today, this Chhinar Book Festival is a celebration of that same culture. Here, every kind of book is available fiction or non fiction. If people read, they will know their history and can do something in the future too. Books are not just words written on paper, they are teachers of life.Take a new story, a new thought and a new hope from here today. One should not read just school books. Even fictional books teach us a lot that school text books do not teach us.