Book Fair Vist Went Wrong

Every year, my mother, brother, and I used to visit the Colombo International Book Fair. Especially after retirement, my mother loved reading more books as she felt very lonely at home. This time, I informed her as soon as I saw the notice about the book fair. However, she had a small obstacle this time—my grandmother was sick, and my mother had to take care of her chores. But we all really wanted to take her out so she could have some time to socialize. So, my brother volunteered to stay at home with my father to handle all the work related to my grandmother.

After arranging my grandmother’s food and finishing her morning routine, we started our visit. Harith, my mother, and I went together. It was a Sunday, and that was the first mistake we made. As we got closer to BMICH, the traffic was very heavy, and we had to park about 100 meters away. As soon as we entered, we realized the crowd was overwhelming.

I’ve been going to the book fair for years, but I had never seen a crowd like this before. I guess it was because it was a Sunday. There were multiple queues to enter, and we had to wait for around 10 minutes in line to get in.

I made the second mistake once we entered. My mother stopped by the book stall closest to the entrance, but I told her we could check the other stalls first and come back later. Luckily, she said she was fine with the current stall, so I left her there and went to explore the other stalls. They were extremely crowded, with very little space to browse books. I picked a few translations and then made the third mistake.

As Harith's mother wanted some stationery, we thought to buy them here. So, I went inside the "Akura" stall. Smart Harith turned back near the door, but I still went in. That stall was extremely poorly managed, and the crowd was stuck at the cashiers. After struggling through the middle of the crowd, I managed to pick the items, but I had to spend more than 30 minutes in line to pay the bill. The crowd was intense, and the stall was packed, hot, and stuffy, making it hard to breathe fresh air.

I was really sweaty when I came out. Harith was near the door, waiting to welcome me back. After that frustrating hour, we met my mother, who had lots of books in her hand. She had actually prepared her book list early and had managed to buy them all from the earlier stalls without dealing with the crowd.

My mother was thrilled, while I was very disappointed with my visit. But seeing her satisfaction made me happy too. After lunch, we returned home.