The Thirukkural Radio, launched this year, allows children to hear any verse by simply pressing its number. “The kural is narrated in Tamil, along with its explanation. Students learn Thirukkurals in school or through other digital mediums. Those can be distracting. We launched a test run of the product this year and the reception has been good,” said R Sathish Gupta, founder, Magicbox Publications—a firm creating educational content for children.Thiruvalluvar was also the central theme at other stalls. At Omni Library Publications’ stall, a 3D book on Thiruvalluvar let children scan pages to watch the poet narrate kurals in augmented reality. “We’ve created AR flash cards for kids in science too. Students scan them to explore any topic interactively,” said E Prabakaran, founder of Wisdom Global Service.Stall manager Afroz demonstrated by placing cards side by side and scanning them, triggering a visual animation. “Pair the earth and moon cards, and the moon orbits the earth. It’s a fun way for students to learn about planets and satellites,” he said.Visitors like M Shanti appreciated how such innovations guide children’s smartphone use productively. “Mobile phones are essential to learn today. It is nice that products that help kids use phones in the right way are available in the market today,” she said.Products on display included study calendar for NEET and JEE, developed by SCERT employees. “The sale of innovative products will be exponentially higher if they got separate stalls,” a BAPASI member said. “Though books remain central to a book fair, it is still important to have other products that blend technology with books to remain relevant in this digital age. It is nice to see such products being sold hand-in-hand with books,” BAPASI president R S Shanmugam said.
