Over 3066 parents participate in Book Reading Festival in Pune

By: Pune Pulse

December 14, 2023

Pune: The Pune Book Festival, organized on behalf of the National Book Trust will be held on the grounds of Fergusson College from December 16 to December 24.

As a precursor to the event, over three thousand parents participated in the ‘Parents Reading out Stories To Their Children’ activity organized on Thursday morning (December 14) on the S P college grounds, in which they read stories to their children for four minutes continuously.

As per further information, the parents set a new world record, breaking the Chinese record for reading stories to their children, on December 14 till 11:25 am. This was followed by a jubilant celebration to the sound of drums and patriotic songs.

Vikram Kumar, PMC Commissioner, Vikas Dhakane, PMC Additional Commissioner, Dr Suresh Gosavi, Vice Chancellor, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Entrepreneur Jay Kakade, Adv SK Jain, Krishnakumar Goyal, Chairman of Khadki Education Institute, Yuvraj Malik, Trust Director, Actress Prajakta Mali, Organizer Rajesh Pandey, Muralidhar Mohol, Former Mayor, Prasenjit Fadnavis, Rahul Pakhere, Bhagyashree Manthalkar etc were present.

The participating parents read to their children a lesson from the book ‘Nisargacha Nash Karu Naka’ written by Kshipra Shahane for four minutes consecutively.

On this occasion, the officials of the Guinness Book of Records announced that the new world record of ‘Parents telling their children’ has been established in the name of India and after that, there was jubilation on the field. After this world record, parents and children celebrated with slogans like Vande Mataram, and Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The whole program was planned by the officers and employees of Pune Municipal Corporation. The entire initiative was supported by entrepreneur Suryakant Kakade.

Actress Prajakta Mali guided the children present and inspired them to read. 

On this occasion, Chaitanya Kulkarni organized a musical program of Marathi songs. Coordination was done by Dr Sanjay Chakane and Milind Kulkarni.

The world record for parents narrating stories to their children was previously held by China. In China, about eight years ago, 2,479 parents told stories to their children at the same time. However, for the Book Reading Festival in Pune on Thursday, 3,066 parents gathered and read books to their children.

Shreyas Vange