What you can do at the Kochi International Book Festival in addition to buying books

Kochi International Book Festival at Ernakulathappan ground in Kochi on Sunday
| Photo Credit: H VIBHU

If you are planning to visit the 27th Kochi International Book festival, go armed with a word or two. At the end of the line of stalls is a Shabd (word) Corner set up by the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT), Ministry of Education, New Delhi. A board has been installed where you can contribute any word in your mother tongue (with the  translation). 

Though the initiative is aimed at enriching the glossary of scientific and technical terms, the Shabd Corner has already collected a handful of random words, mostly in Malayalam, but a few in other languages as well. From everyday mazha (rain), mazhavillu (rainbow), aavalathikaaran (complainant), to nikshepam (deposit) to the slightly more technical concepts such apekshika ardratha (relative humidity) and vanamanrangal (forest trees) in Malayalam, one would find a few words in Urdu such as sarparast (guardian) and la haasil (unproductive). A poetic expression by Kochi-based children’s writer Sippy Pallipuram, “madhurikkunna Kochi, nammude Kochi” (sweet Kochi, our Kochi) is on the board too.

“At the end of the fair, we would have a curious collection of words,” says Aakash Mohan Rawat, an executive from the CSTT. 

The Shabd Corner is part of an initiative by the CSTT to standardise and promote technical words in 22 official Indian languages. Sponsored by the Union Education Ministry, the aim is to create a bank of technical terminology in all Indian languages.

If you have an artist in you, you could also contribute to an art corner set up by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. The Reserve Bank of India, has installed a quiz station, where you would have to answer ten questions in three minutes. The questions would be banking related, of course, and you could win prizes.

The 27th Kochi International Book Fair is on till December 8 at the Ernakulathappan Grounds.