Karachi International Book Fair: All roads lead to Expo Centre as KIBF 2011 opens

The areas surrounding the Expo Centre are buzzing with activity and there’s a lot of noise inside three halls since morning as the 7th Karachi International Book Fair (KIBF) 2011 was opened to the public at the designated time of 10 am on December 16.

The stalls have been tastefully decorated and there has been considerable rush of people of all ages from the moment the gates were opened on a Friday morning on which life generally is slow in Karachi.

There were students, clad in uniform, as well as teachers and professionals who not only visited the various stalls but also availed the opportunity of purchasing books in comparatively less crowded environment as more people are expected to pour in during the weekends.

The officials and volunteers of the KIBF are there at the reception area to greet and facilitate the visitors. The KIBF Convener, Owais Mirza Jamil, and the Chairman of the Pakistan Publishers & Booksellers Association (PPBA), Aziz Khalid, are supervising all the arrangements with the assistance of their team members.

A record number of 290 stalls have been set up in the KIBF 2011 which promises to become the largest event of its kind in Pakistan. 

(Jumbo Publishing. Com)

Revamped Jumbo Publishing website launched

Jumbo Publishing has launched its revamped website www.jumbopublishing.com which offers customers greater knowledge about its books in addition to important news and updates.

The newly designed website is user-friendly that makes it easy for the customer to find and learn about Jumbo Publishing’s books.

The customers can easily read a review of the book they are interested in. They can also order it very conveniently by downloading and printing the form and sending it over with the cheque/draft of the appropriate amount.
Three latest articles from the blog of Jumbo Publishing, www.jumbopublishing.blogspot.com appear on the home page and the visitors can access them rather comfortably.

The launch of our newly redesigned website is in line with Jumbo Publishing’s philosophy of spreading knowledge and providing the best possible services to its customers.

"My Parliamentary Dairies" launched in Karachi

Marvi Memon, a former parliamentarian, launched her book ‘My Parliamentary Dairies’ at a five-star hotel of Karachi on August 27. Addressing the launching ceremony, Marvi remarked that during her three years in the National Assembly, she had a choice; either to enjoy the perks of power ignoring the injustice with 99% of Pakistanis and playing the politics of hypocrisy or strive to bring a change in the system. “So I decided to bring that change”, she said.
Marvi said that she had taken her first step. She traveled through the length and breadth of Pakistan to highlight the issues and injustices that enslaved the nation. She spoke about people’s struggle for rights on the floor of the House, in the streets and in front of the judiciary. Marvi said that her people and she lived, laughed, cried, ate and struggled together and most importantly believed in each other. The former MNA said that she simply fought for people’s rights.
“We have to rediscover the meaning of Pakistan and act honesty and loyally with our family and country or we can continue watching and contributing to the downward slide till the meaning of Pakistan becomes irrelevant,” she pointed out. “We should treat each other as the Quaid-e-Azam advised, with no discrimination and no distinction among the communities, castes or creeds,” Marvi urged.
She has dedicated the book to her son Murtaza and all children of Pakistan. She plans to have the book translated and published not only in Urdu and Sindhi but all other national and regional languages. Marvi served as Member of Parliament from March 2008 to June 2011 as a PML MNA. She resigned from her party and parliament in order to set new standards in politics. She was born in Karachi in July 1972. After schooling in Karachi, Paris and Kuwait, she graduated from the London School of Economics with a B.Sc (Econ) Honors in International Relations. She started her career as a banker at Citibank Pakistan where she specialized in Marketing and Quality Management for the consumer bank.
www.Jumbopublishing.com

Jumbo Publishing joins hands with Kitabain.com

Jumbo Publishing, the market leaders in sports publishing in the region, have recently joined hands with Kitabain.com, an online books marketplace, having made great strides in a rather short span of time.

Kitabain.com has been founded by two highly talented young engineers, Usman Siddiqui and Jawad Yousuf, with a mission to connect booksellers/bookstores all over Pakistan with book lovers across the country.

Usman has a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, with highest distinction, from Purdue University, Indiana, USA, while Jawad has a degree in Actuarial Sciences from Purdue University and a Masters degree in Statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Kitabain.com is a centralized platform where individual sellers or bookstores can instantly make their inventory available online using our automated system and where buyers can browse for and purchase books put up by numerous booksellers all in one place.

Their overriding goal is to make access to books easier for readers across Pakistan. They have reckoned that the prices of new books are generally on the higher side, access to old books is limited since there are a limited number of old bookstores which are not always accessible to everyone and the old books that are available at these bookstores or weekly bazaars are poorly catalogued and hence difficult to find.

They have come up with the solution in the shape of www.kitabain.com where properly catalogued and searchable database of thousands of used/new books at deeply discounted prices are showcased, providing an opportunity for small bookstores/book sellers to make their inventory available to a potentially much larger audience than the traffic at their stores and anyone in Pakistan can be their customer.

Book Review: Spotlight on World Cup 2003

By Prof Dr Nasim Fatima

Spotlight on World Cup 2003 is a decent publication. The book in hand competes with the standard followed by Oxford University Press or Cambridge Series. White offset paper has been used; printing is up to the mark; layout desirable; beautiful title cover in gray shades and a colour of full dust cover present a batsman hitting the ball for a six. In the centre a member of the winning team with the trophy is inserted. Title cover spotlights the subject of the publication obviously.

Jalalddin, a former Test cricketer, has written foreword of the book. He reckons that ‘Spotlight on World Cup 2003’ is another worthy compilation of Syed Khalid Mahmood, having carved a niche for himself in cricket journalism.

The book consists of chapters: Dreams and Nightmares, a poetic imagination of the author with sportsmen; On paper Pakistan had a formidable outfit, an analysis and comments by Wasim Akram, a former Pakistan captain; Lack of passion cost Pakistan dearly, thoughts by Sikander Bakht, a former Test fast bowler; Rules should be transparent, opined Syed Ali Raza, President, National Bank of Pakistan; Mind power makes the difference, believed Azeem Sarwar, a legendary broadcaster and commentator; Australia rules once more, wrote Ehsan Qureshi, a seasoned journalist and Top of the Flops authored by Shahid Mahmood, a noted analyst.

The author has thrown light on the exciting matches of the tournament with the standout performance of Lara, Cordington, Fleming, Obuyu, Bevan, Bichel, Ponting and Martyn getting special mention. The scorecards of all the matches have been arranged chronologically followed by the complete records of the tournament.

The book is fully illustrated by full page colorful and action photographs of the top performers to give a vision to the matches. The book should have been adorned with a name index of the players and other eminent persons mentioned between the covers. The author deserves congratulations for producing a wonderful book for the fans of cricket in the country and abroad.