ahmedabad childhood brings in lots of memories for the adults but the most potent ones are associated with the makebelieve dream world summoned by power of words amid the hue and cry about decline in output of literature aimed at children and reading habits among young adults the bj institute of learning and research near hk college on ashram road has organized a 15day exhibition of rare gujarati books from 19th and 20th century for children from monday the books are part of the institutes library containing more than 1 lakh titles where the oldest one dates back to 1828 r j savaliya director of the institute said children literature prepares them for challenges ahead and facing it without sermons through brave characters depicted in tales of hitopadesh panchtantra and aesops fables the exhibition will highlight the rich legacy of gujarati children literature where one can see first translation of aesops fables arabian nights of 1890 entire set of sayaji sanskar maala covering diverse topics in booklets that was distributed in moving libraries of gaekwad state in early 20th century as well as translations and transliterations of popular western literature such as sinbad and gullivers travels experts consider hope vaachanmala published in 1858 as first conscious effort in erstwhile bombay state targeted at young readers before that one finds panchopakhyan translation of panchtantra in 1824 and 1844 attempts to bring out books themed on general knowledge and humour have been reported in 1870s likewise hitopadesh was first translated in gujarati in 1889 gijubhais vision gijubhai fondly called moochali maa mother with moustache due to his revolutionary approach towards child education is credited with bringing out large volume of childcentric literature including short stories plays and songs in early 20th century he is considered to be amongst the first educationists in india who stressed equally on quality children literature for wholesome education