AMRITSAR: The five-day-long `Amritsar Literary Festival and Book Fair today concluded at historic Khalsa College with a promise to make concerted efforts to connect youth with books. The experts said despite the youth largely clinging to mobile phones and computers, the love for books still persists and reading habits need to be nurtured further.
During the last day of 9th Amritsar Literature Festival and Book Fair today had Khalsa University’s Pro-Chancellor and honourary secretary Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, KU VC , Dr. Mehal Singh and renowned essayist and retired IG Punjab Police Garpreet Singh Toor spoke in unison voice to promote the book culture in society.
VC Dr. Mehal Singh expressed his views on the importance of literature and its contribution to society. He said in today’s scientific era, it is also very important to connect with literature so that students can get an understanding of life and its values. Gurpreet Singh Toor said that we should take inspiration from great people to improve our personality. “Heritage fairs connect us with our heritage. It is of special importance for educational institutions to create such literary fairs”, said he adding that lack of knowledge and youth’s flight abroad is causing huge losses to Punjab’s society.
Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, said the rush to go abroad in the present generation has ruined many homes. The agents and many notorious IELTS centers have ruined families. The basis of going abroad should be only to get education and students should take conscious steps to secure their future. Expressing concern about the devastation of Punjab during the partition, he said that we are still suffering the consequences of the partition.
He congratulated the Executive Principal of Khalsa College Amritsar, Dr. Taminder Singh Bhatia and the Head of the Punjabi Department, Dr. Atam Singh Randhawa and their entire team for the festival. A book ‘Parvas Te Punjab' by Gurpreet Singh Toor was unveiled. Various speakers presented their views on this book. Dr. Balwant Singh Sandhu, Principal, Guru Angad Dev College, Khadoor Sahib, while presenting his views on the book, said that such books should be made a part of the syllabus of the students so that they can get good guidelines.
Dr. Gurdeep Singh Dhillon said that the reason for emigration is the disconnection of the young generation from their literature. Books related to the state of Punjab should be written and read. Dr. Arvinder Singh Dhillon, while expressing his concern about the issue of students going abroad, said that this book will prove helpful in connecting the students going abroad with the reality of the outside society.
The government is responsible for the rush to go abroad which is not providing employment opportunities for them. Intellectuals and thinkers of educational institutions can play a special role in getting the students out of this problem. After this, Dr. Kanwaljit Singh and Navalpreet Rangi shared the importance of the book with the audience.
In the afternoon, Navalpreet Rangi’s documentary film ‘Pauri’ was presented, which focused on the economic problems of the Punjabi youth who have migrated and the difficulties they face in their lives. After the film, experts and students discussed the problems related to migration with filmmaker Navalpreet Rangi.
In the afternoon, during the ‘Teri Meri Ek Jindri’ program, renowned actors Anita Devgan and Hardeep Gill shared important aspects related to their artistry with the audience. After this program, in the poetry program dedicated to Joga Singh Jogi, Giani Gurmukh Singh MA and his band enchanted the audience with their poetry. The climax of the event was the folk dance Jhumar.
Dr. Atam Singh Randhawa said that although two book fairs have been held in Jalandhar and Ludhiana in the last one month, in the five days of Amritsar Sahitya Utsav and Book Fair, the people who came to the fair bought books worth more than 70 lakhs from more than 100 publishers, which is the measure of the success of our book fair. Dr. Randhawa thanked the Khalsa College management and principal for this fair and also thanked them for the cooperation extended by various departments in making the fair a success.