The mela serves as a rare meeting point for publishers, writers, book lovers and readers in an annual cycle which one wishes were more frequently organised given the potential it has to promote book sales, inspire authors to write more, and in the process, expand reading habit in the country.

Let's not forget, the book-marketing mechanism remains pathetically undeveloped. The entire city has but a few known public sale centres. Most of the them appear to be just like any other vending outfit of commercial merchandise.

There are two other aspects of the book fair, which demand our close attention, so that we can enrich and perfect it more and more from one year to another. It is often alleged that publishers and established authors, driven by a common interest, use this venue for boosting sales of their books often ignoring many upcoming and budding writers. The selection procedure for allotment of stalls is also marked by opacity and political consideration, so it has been reported. Such shortcomings must be overcome to add some real value to the book fair.

Aside from displaying English translations of our literary works, there should be a conscious effort to publish and put on sale books authored in English by our own budding and promising writers.

We wish the Book Mela all success and the readers a feast on good, quality books.