Bhubaneswar: On World Book Day (WBD) Tuesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik shared his views on power of reading by saying ‘books open doors to new ideas and new thoughts’. Taking to X, the CM said, “Let’s celebrate the power of books, promote diverse voices in literature to enhance our intellect and protect cultural heritage.” To mark the day, hundreds of people including commuters and children enthusiastically took part in various activities in City.
On this occasion, the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) team distributed 10,000 bookmarks amongst the commuters, across all routes of MO Bus operational areas, to encourage the habit of reading and using public transport to commute. The team also visited State Library to create awareness on reading and using public transportation. The bookmarks had special messages written on it, such as ‘A book let you travel places’, ‘Good Habits: Reading books and using public transport’, ‘Read books, travel places and change the world’, and ‘Books are forever’ among others. The activity was carried out throughout the day in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Rourkela, Sambalpur and Berhampur. To mark the occasion, Bakul Foundation organised a book reading marathon called ‘READA-THON’ at the Bakul Library in Satyanagar here. The marathon was open to all readers, below the age of thirty. They were divided in two categories, ten years or below and those between 11 and 30 years. The participants had to read for three hours to achieve 30 points to complete the marathon. One had to read the longest and garner maximum points to win the marathon.
Over 100 children and youth participated along with their parents. Founder of Bakul Foundation Sujit Mahapatra said that although other events like storytelling have attracted children to the Bakul library, this event was more focused on reading. It is heartening that many parents brought their children after 6 pm, knowing that the child could not complete the marathon, but they wanted their child to participate in it.
ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
