Kuwait Platinum Book Pavilion witnesses great turnout at DIBF

Kuwait-based Platinum Book Pavilion witnessed a great turnout at the 33rd session of the Doha International Book Fair (DIBF), which concluded Saturday. The 10-day event had the theme 'Knowledge Builds Civilisations'.

Dr Ahmed al-Haidar, managing director of Platinum Book told Gulf Times said: “DIBF is always characterized by a diverse and varied spectrum of audiences of different ages, nationalities, and different groups, including young and old, women and men, and this is evidence of the love of Qataris and residents for paper books. It is no secret to anyone the great role and support of the Qatari government and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as evidenced by his personal attendance, honouring the exhibition and his keenness to be present, and touring it as is his annual custom. This is the greatest support for the Arab reader, intellectual and publisher, and it is a moral boost that has no limits."

Al-Haidar continued: “We noticed a beautiful, wonderful and distinguished turnout at the pavilion and at the exhibition, especially in the last days, which is often better in Arab exhibitions in general. The more the exhibition progressed in its days, the more the number of readers and visitors increased. As for Platinum Book, we presented a lot of new publications at the exhibition and we have many Qatari publications from a number of authors, including but not limited to, such as Dr Ahmed Abdelmalik, Sara al-Haidous with her collection of thoughts, and Mona al-Jahni, with her book on human Development, titled 'Don't be a cooked frog'. Therefore, there is a variety of books through which we try to satisfy all tastes.”

Dr Ahmed Abdelmalik, holder of Katara Award for the Arabic novel, told Gulf Times: “In the novel 'Baha', I tackled the issue of human trafficking i.e. selling babies somewhere in India. I read about it in Indian newspapers and I searched the case for six months. Then I came up with the idea about a Qatari couple who could not have children. They were told by an Indian friend about a place where they can buy a baby.

"After spending nine months there, they came back with a baby to please the grandfather, as part of the Qatari love for grandchildren to carry their family name. It is not a true story, but Baha the hero of the story was a clever student, he traveled to the US for a new life. His adoptive mother sent him three photos one when he was a baby, another when he was at primary school and the third when he finished high school. So he displayed these photos on his Facebook account, I used the new social media as a new twist to the narrative.

"His real mother saw the pictures on Facebook, and knew immediately that he was her baby. She contacted him and he asked her to send him her photo, but she sent him his sister’s photo and soon after he fell in love with her and asked her to come to America ... As she could not travel, Baha went to India and through Facebook he got to know his uncle who took him to his real mother.

"Then, in a tragic moment he was surprised to see this old lady kissing him and holding him closely to her. Just to discover that she was his real mother and the picture was of his sister who passed away two years ago ... I don’t want to tell the whole story,” Abdelmalik commented. “It is a tragedy resulting from human trafficking,” he said.