ANNA ROHLEDER
At 8 o’clock in the evening, just before closing time, the lights at New Delhi’s Oxford bookstore have dimmed and the air-conditioning switched off. It’s not an atmosphere conducive to browsing, but people still linger around the shelves and at the tables of the in-store cafe. A young couple sit at one of the tables, engrossed in books on home decoration, while their toddler gleefully pulls paperbacks off the shelves and throws them on the floor. The other customers who remain in the store seem to feel equally at home: hunkered down here and there in chairs or on cushions, oblivious to the fact that the store is closing for the day.
Such is the picture of a changing book publishing scene in India, which is witnessing a boom. The boom is perhaps quieter and less frenetic than most — there are no frenzied stockbrokers and, mercifully little talk of “creating value” — but it is a steady swell all the same. One of the main features in the Rs 1,500-crore industry’s growth is the emergence of a new retail environment, of which the bookstore-cum-café just mentioned is a part. These national chains of large-format bookstores are destination shops by virtue of their size alone. Landmark’s largest store, for example, is 45,000 sq. ft in size and many of the others are in the same range. These stores have changed the image of books from dusty tomes of wisdom to slick entertainment packages, sharing the shelves with CDs and DVDs. At the same time, the growth of trade publishing in India — meaning fiction, self-help, non-fiction and the like — is a reflection of changes in society. Today, people are better educated and more affluent, even if a bit more solitary as well. “As we all lead busier and lonelier lives, books, films and music become emotional substitutes,” observes Karthika V.K., the editor-in-chief of Harper Collins India in New Delhi.
One factor that drives the book publishing industry today is the reader’s needs and aspirations. Some of the categories of books leading the growth are obvious. Romances, for example, or even the new breed of commercial fiction with a recognisable, contemporary Indian setting. “There is a tremendous popularity of books among the youth that are coming up, where a book like One Night At The Call Center becomes a topic of conversation,” says Kapish Mehra, publisher of Rupa Books in Delhi. But other “hot” genres are less obvious — at least on the face of it. “Narrative non-fiction is the new best-selling category, which includes titles such as Maximum City or The World Is Flat,” says Thomas Abraham, president of Penguin India. Maybe the appeal of these books lies in education and entertainment — a winning premise for the reader who is deprived of both time and intelligent conversation. Publishers also like these titles. They sell well in hardback, at two or three times the cover price of the Rs 225 anti-piracy paperback editions of bestsellers.
Children Hold Out Promise
At the opposite end of the pricing spectrum is another growth market — children’s books. Almost all the major publishing houses agree that this will be one of their biggest categories in future. Even traditionally niche-minded publishers want a piece of the action in this section. “Aside from fiction and self-help, we are also diversifying into children’s books,” says Pramod Kapoor, publisher, Roli Books. However, the children’s book market is one of the toughest for an A- or B-ranked publisher to crack. That’s because C- and D-grade publishers have a stranglehold on the production of primers, activity books and story collections that sell for Rs 70 or even less. These books could be printed on the same flimsy paper as the railway timetables produced by the same publishers. But it also a fact that most parents either cannot or do not want to spend more. That poses a problem for trade publishers who need to price a quality children’s book at Rs 200 and up.
The economics may change later, but the sales figures are compelling now. “Our No.1 category is children’s books,” says Aniyan Nair, head of operations marketing at Mumbai-based Crossword, India’s largest book chain with 44 outlets nationwide. “It contributes 40 per cent by volume and 28 per cent by value.” By contrast, all of fiction is responsible for only 22 per cent of sales volume. The children’s reading areas and toy sections at places like Crossword and Landmark, reveal an effort to tap a key consumer niche. Oxford Bookstore, a smaller national chain, has even opened a dedicated children’s bookshop called Oxford Junior next to its flagship store in Kolkata.
While children’s books symbolise the biggest opportunities for the Indian publishing industry, they also illustrate some of the challenges. Pricing is the primary issue facing almost all publishers. “For the past seven to eight years, prices for other entertainment options have been going up, while the cover price of a book has remained static,” says Penguin India’s Abraham. Meanwhile, production costs have also increased manifold — from paper prices to design services to packaging. How are the publishers still making money? Part of the answer is volume. “When you have fewer titles and larger print runs, you get better profits from economies of scale,” explains Kapoor of Roli Books. That is particularly true of some imported titles, which can sell in the blockbuster range of 100,000 copies-plus (see ‘Making The A-List’).
Another strategy is expansion into more profitable areas. Business and management books, for example, fly off the shelves at a higher price point than most fiction hardbacks. Even publishers without foreign parents are selling their lists abroad. “We now sell everywhere in the world, from the US to Australia,” announces Kapish Mehra of Rupa Books. Margins vary widely by book and by category, however. “In general, a publisher’s profit depends on the individual project,” says N.S. Krishna, national sales director at Random House India. And because a distributor’s typical 30-35 per cent discount takes one of the biggest bites out of that profit, some are experimenting with direct sales. Taking a page from the book pirates, as it were, they are sidestepping both distributors and retailers and hiring their own roving sales force to go out and sell to the public in malls and markets.
Distributors Call The Shots
Distributors, as in any other industry, play a vital role. In fact, they retain an outsize role in determining which books actually reach consumers in stores because the Indian book retailing scene is still dominated by small, independent bookshops, despite the high-profile expansion of big chain stores. But distributors are not particularly interested in books for their literary merits. They are just middlemen trading in a commodity. “When a new product comes, we push that quantity, and after a day or two we see what is the outcome,” explains Baldev Verma, regional manager for North India with India Book Distributors based in Mumbai. Because the percentage of books the distributors can return to publishers is capped at about 10 per cent annually, they are cautious buyers. They may place as few as two or three copies of one book with each shop, and spread their risk even further by supplying hundreds of different bookshops in one region or zone.
In some ways, this helps new or unknown authors get a better, if random, shot at exposure, but it makes organised marketing more difficult. Publishers complain they have little insight and even less influence on how their books are promoted. However, their range of marketing tools does not typically extend much beyond posters, display boards and bookmarks either. Well-known authors may get a book launch in the capital, but the Indian book tour as such is yet to be conceived. Publicity budgets is one area of publishing that is not growing much. “Authors have to become more responsible for maintaining the life of a book,” says Karthika of Harper Collins.
Fortunately, the ‘hype cycle’ for new books is still not quite as attenuated as it is in the West, nor has the market reached a saturation level. With 500,000 additional sq.ft of book retailing space slated to come up nationwide over the next two years, there are a lot of shelves to be filled, and not just with bestsellers. Internet sales are keeping pace too. “Our online sales have been growing at over 40 per cent a year, though the base is still low,” says Rajiv Chowdhry, CEO of Oxford Bookstores.
Amidst this scene of plenty, however, shortages are one thing that threaten to dampen the industry’s exuberance. There is a shortfall of people in every segment, from editors to sift through growing piles of manuscripts, to marketers who can think of creative ways of making a book stand out, to retail salespeople who can help customers find their favourite authors. Space is also in short supply, be it for warehouses or land to build the 30,000 sq. ft-plus new chain bookstores.
But there’s one type of shortage that may have the opposite effect and keep the market humming. With people finding less time for family and friends , the mental and emotional territory for books can only get bigger.
Making The A-List
Definitions of a bestseller vary widely. In general, a novel that sells more than 8,000 copies in India can be said to have beaten the odds and possibly made a small profit for its publisher. In the mid-range of bestsellerdom are authors who move tens of thousands of copies of their books — Vikram Seth, for example. At the blockbuster level, every Harry Potter book sells at least 200,000 copies in India. But Paulo Coelho is also not far behind, with sales in the 100,000 range annually.
What are the qualities that make a book a bestseller? David Godwin, the UK-based literary agent who represents Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, among others, thinks it is a matter of connecting to the reader at a deep level. “Books that do this manage to both display and transform the Zeitgeist, and speak to concerns that are universal,” he says.
Courtesy: Businessworld
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Book your summer
Jai Arjun Singh
Some lightweight reading for the long dry season.
THE KING OF PAGE-TURNERS
Stephen King is one of the most prolific and best-selling writers in the world, and those two words aren’t usually synonymous with high quality — but in his best work King has plumbed the depths of the human soul in a way that’s unmatched by most other popular writers.
His latest novel, Lisey’s Story, is a revisitation of a motif that has run through his work: the dark world of the imagination that a writer lives in, and the effect this interior world can have on him and his family. Lisey is a famous author’s widow, who wants to lock herself away with her memories after his death, but finds their shared past catching up with her. The result is a fine psychological horror story.
BELLY LAUGHS
“He is simply unique in the same way that Picasso or Stravinsky are, and I believe his outrageous unsentimental disregard for order will be equally funny a thousand years from now,” said Woody Allen of Groucho Marx.
The middle child among a group of talented brothers who infiltrated the cinema with their subversive brand of madness, Julius Henry “Groucho” was a natural comic genius. The Marx Brothers’ films invariably centred around his lunatic persona, complete with bizarre painted moustache, cigar firmly in mouth and a trademark machine-gun delivery of non-sequiturs.
Lines like “Why, my ancestors would rise out of their graves and I’d only have to bury them again” were made hysterically funny by his deadpan delivery and incongruously pensive expression. Stefan Kanfer’s The Essential Groucho is a compilation of highlights from movie scripts, passages from Groucho’s books, ad-libs and quips from his long-running game show You Bet Your Life, and letters including his classic correspondence with T S Eliot.
CRICKET
For cricket lovers disillusioned by India’s early World Cup exit, the increasing mediocrity of the one-day game, and poor administration, Men in White, a collection of Mukul Kesavan’s essays, is a reminder of what the game can be at its best. Like all impassioned cricket lovers, Kesavan is very opinionated, and he holds forth here on a variety of topics — such as the culture of cricket in Chennai, the need to re-think the special rules created for one-dayers, and the implications of a racist remark by commentator Dean Jones.
Other highlights include his memories of listening to radio commentary as a child and playing the “Lutyens Variant” of cricket in a neighbourhood park. In a reading season that has seen a glut of soul-deadening, stats-heavy “cricket books” cynically cashing in on the WC craze, this one comes as a breath of fresh air.
MYSTERY
The sunny, non-threatening worlds created by Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith are best appreciated during a lazy summer vacation. A law professor who turns out at least a couple of books each year, Smith has created a couple of popular series featuring such characters as Precious Ramotswe, the “Miss Marple of Botswana”, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
In Blue Shoes and Happiness, Precious investigates a number of troublesome matters, including theft and blackmail at a catering college and sinister goings-on at a health clinic.
Meanwhile, she has philosophical questions to address too: is it right to find happiness in small things, such as a new pair of blue shoes? This is cosy, feel-good armchair (or deckchair) reading; just a look at the bright cover, with its colourful relief-print illustration, will set the mood.
NON-FICTION
Books on India and “Indianness” have been quite the rage in recent months, with notable entries by foreign correspondents Edward Luce (In Spite of the Gods) and Christopher Kremer (Inhaling the Mahatma), as well as Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi and Sudhir Kakar’s The Indians: Portrait of a People.
New on the shelves is Mark Tully’s India’s Unending Journey, in which the author shares the formative experiences of his British Raj upbringing, his public school years and early vocation as a priest, his distinguished broadcasting career and his fascination for India’s tradition, as well as its modern way of doing things.
Through interviews and anecdotes, he embarks on a journey that investigates the many faces of India, from the untouchables of Uttar Pradesh to the skyscrapers of Gurgaon. Pleasant and undemanding, despite its vast scope, and don’t miss the chapter on Khajuraho, with the Christian Tully charily coming to terms with India’s long tradition of sex in religion!
MYTHOLOGY
Speaking of sex in religion... You might not associate the Puranas with summer reading, but Ramesh Menon’s beautifully written translations — in a series of books published over the last two years — have brought alive the stories we read in Amar Chitra Katha comics as children.
Even the deliberately archaic language isn’t a serious barrier to enjoying these stories; start with Menon’s Siva Purana and Krishna Purana before moving on to the more heavyweight translations of the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagvata. Be warned, though, that these are uncensored translations with lots of explicit violence and divine copulations, not the sterile, Colgate-toothpaste versions of gods that you see in TV serials.
SPECIAL MENTION
The collected edition of writer/artist Craig Thompson’s elegiac “illustrated novel” Blankets is now available in India, and it’s well worth investing your money and time into, even if you’re not a graphic-novel convert. Thompson said in an interview that the book came out of his need “to describe how it feels to sleep next to someone for the first time”.
This memoir moves between two phases of its narrator’s life: his childhood days, sharing (and squabbling over) a single bed with his kid brother; and his years as a lonely, confused adolescent, a measure of comfort coming in the form of an unusual relationship with a girl named Raina. Through all this, he struggles with questions about religion, art, the importance of family and the difficulty of achieving genuine closeness with another person.
Don’t be daunted by the size (580 pages) of this book — it won’t take you more than a couple of reading sessions to get through; after which we recommend you read it again, this time paying closer attention to the image details.
Also look out for: Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a follow-up to the extremely popular The Kite Runner; and After Dark, a new novella by the celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Courtesy: Business Standard
Some lightweight reading for the long dry season.
THE KING OF PAGE-TURNERS
Stephen King is one of the most prolific and best-selling writers in the world, and those two words aren’t usually synonymous with high quality — but in his best work King has plumbed the depths of the human soul in a way that’s unmatched by most other popular writers.
His latest novel, Lisey’s Story, is a revisitation of a motif that has run through his work: the dark world of the imagination that a writer lives in, and the effect this interior world can have on him and his family. Lisey is a famous author’s widow, who wants to lock herself away with her memories after his death, but finds their shared past catching up with her. The result is a fine psychological horror story.
BELLY LAUGHS
“He is simply unique in the same way that Picasso or Stravinsky are, and I believe his outrageous unsentimental disregard for order will be equally funny a thousand years from now,” said Woody Allen of Groucho Marx.
The middle child among a group of talented brothers who infiltrated the cinema with their subversive brand of madness, Julius Henry “Groucho” was a natural comic genius. The Marx Brothers’ films invariably centred around his lunatic persona, complete with bizarre painted moustache, cigar firmly in mouth and a trademark machine-gun delivery of non-sequiturs.
Lines like “Why, my ancestors would rise out of their graves and I’d only have to bury them again” were made hysterically funny by his deadpan delivery and incongruously pensive expression. Stefan Kanfer’s The Essential Groucho is a compilation of highlights from movie scripts, passages from Groucho’s books, ad-libs and quips from his long-running game show You Bet Your Life, and letters including his classic correspondence with T S Eliot.
CRICKET
For cricket lovers disillusioned by India’s early World Cup exit, the increasing mediocrity of the one-day game, and poor administration, Men in White, a collection of Mukul Kesavan’s essays, is a reminder of what the game can be at its best. Like all impassioned cricket lovers, Kesavan is very opinionated, and he holds forth here on a variety of topics — such as the culture of cricket in Chennai, the need to re-think the special rules created for one-dayers, and the implications of a racist remark by commentator Dean Jones.
Other highlights include his memories of listening to radio commentary as a child and playing the “Lutyens Variant” of cricket in a neighbourhood park. In a reading season that has seen a glut of soul-deadening, stats-heavy “cricket books” cynically cashing in on the WC craze, this one comes as a breath of fresh air.
MYSTERY
The sunny, non-threatening worlds created by Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith are best appreciated during a lazy summer vacation. A law professor who turns out at least a couple of books each year, Smith has created a couple of popular series featuring such characters as Precious Ramotswe, the “Miss Marple of Botswana”, proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
In Blue Shoes and Happiness, Precious investigates a number of troublesome matters, including theft and blackmail at a catering college and sinister goings-on at a health clinic.
Meanwhile, she has philosophical questions to address too: is it right to find happiness in small things, such as a new pair of blue shoes? This is cosy, feel-good armchair (or deckchair) reading; just a look at the bright cover, with its colourful relief-print illustration, will set the mood.
NON-FICTION
Books on India and “Indianness” have been quite the rage in recent months, with notable entries by foreign correspondents Edward Luce (In Spite of the Gods) and Christopher Kremer (Inhaling the Mahatma), as well as Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi and Sudhir Kakar’s The Indians: Portrait of a People.
New on the shelves is Mark Tully’s India’s Unending Journey, in which the author shares the formative experiences of his British Raj upbringing, his public school years and early vocation as a priest, his distinguished broadcasting career and his fascination for India’s tradition, as well as its modern way of doing things.
Through interviews and anecdotes, he embarks on a journey that investigates the many faces of India, from the untouchables of Uttar Pradesh to the skyscrapers of Gurgaon. Pleasant and undemanding, despite its vast scope, and don’t miss the chapter on Khajuraho, with the Christian Tully charily coming to terms with India’s long tradition of sex in religion!
MYTHOLOGY
Speaking of sex in religion... You might not associate the Puranas with summer reading, but Ramesh Menon’s beautifully written translations — in a series of books published over the last two years — have brought alive the stories we read in Amar Chitra Katha comics as children.
Even the deliberately archaic language isn’t a serious barrier to enjoying these stories; start with Menon’s Siva Purana and Krishna Purana before moving on to the more heavyweight translations of the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagvata. Be warned, though, that these are uncensored translations with lots of explicit violence and divine copulations, not the sterile, Colgate-toothpaste versions of gods that you see in TV serials.
SPECIAL MENTION
The collected edition of writer/artist Craig Thompson’s elegiac “illustrated novel” Blankets is now available in India, and it’s well worth investing your money and time into, even if you’re not a graphic-novel convert. Thompson said in an interview that the book came out of his need “to describe how it feels to sleep next to someone for the first time”.
This memoir moves between two phases of its narrator’s life: his childhood days, sharing (and squabbling over) a single bed with his kid brother; and his years as a lonely, confused adolescent, a measure of comfort coming in the form of an unusual relationship with a girl named Raina. Through all this, he struggles with questions about religion, art, the importance of family and the difficulty of achieving genuine closeness with another person.
Don’t be daunted by the size (580 pages) of this book — it won’t take you more than a couple of reading sessions to get through; after which we recommend you read it again, this time paying closer attention to the image details.
Also look out for: Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, a follow-up to the extremely popular The Kite Runner; and After Dark, a new novella by the celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Courtesy: Business Standard
Found In Translation
By IE
The spate of English translations of Bengali novels have found maximum takers among Bengalis themselves, busy discovering the literary gems of their mother tongue
"Trouble in Graveyard, Danger in Darjeeling and The Buccaneer of Bombay, these are my favourite Feluda stories," says 24-year-old Shalini Choudhury, a research fellow with Indian Statistical Institute. Most Bengalis who have grown up on the Ray family's seminal children's magazine, Sandesh, will find this bit of information preposterous. After all, Satyajit Ray never wrote them in English. "Buccaneer of Bombay? You mean Bombaiyer Bombete? I have grown up reading Feluda stories in Bengali and I can't imagine reading them in any other language," says Meghraj Moitra, 28, an employee of ABN Amro Bank.
While many other Bengalis might identify with Moitra's dismay, yet the truth remains that a generation of Bengalis have started identifying these perennial Bengali classics in their Anglicised avatars. "I studied in an English medium school. My second language was Hindi, which means I have never studied the Bengali language. Which is why I found the idea of even reading Bengali newspapers scary. My parents always used to talk about Feluda and other Bengali classics, which made me want to read them. So one fine day I picked up a translation of Feluda and have been hooked ever since," says Chowdhury. Sreyasi Ray, HR manager, Veloz Software, echoes the sentiment. " I read English translations of Bengali classics simply because it's the language I am comfortable in. as long as the essence of the novel is captured I don't care what language it is in," says Ray.
"Most translations of Bengali classics like Ray's Feluda series and Sunil Gangopadhyay are bought by young Bengali readers. Even though there is a growing number of non-Bengali readers too, almost 80 percent of the readers of the translations are Bengalis. This has always been the case. It's probably because there are many young readers who can't read or write in Bengali," says Pradeep Choudhury, manager in charge, Seagull Bookstore. Raju Burman, partner of Rupa & Co., which has published many Tagore translations, corroborates the observation . "There is a huge market for translations in Bengali classics in India and abroad. A lot of non- Bengalis and foreigners buy these books to initiate themselves to Bengali literature. But the bulk of our customers comprise Bengalis who don't have the means to read the original books. They can be NRIs or Kolkatans," says Burman.
Popular Bengali contemporary classics like Ray's Feluda series sell more in Kolkata than anywhere else. "As much as 40 per cent of the sales of Feluda books are made in Kolkata itself," says a senior official of Penguin India, which has published the translations of most Feluda novels.
For many Non Resident Bengalis these translations are, ironically, their only window to the Bengali milieu. "In translation such as Shankar's Chowringhee, Sunil Gangopadhyay's Those Days and of course the Feluda stories, I find the warmth of Bengali culture. I have never lived in Bengal and my perception of it is basically based on the accounts of my parents. So obviously, it's nostalgia-hued. And these translations in many ways have strengthened the perception," says 24-year-old Arunlekha Sengupta, an employee of Google Hyderabad, who is planning to buy many more such translations during her yearly trip to the city.
Reputed Bengali author Sankar, whose Chowringhee was recently translated by Penguin, acknowledges Sengupta's feelings. "My book is a celebration of the middle-class Bengali heartbeat as well as the cosmopolitan wave that washed the City of Joy with the fading of colonial rule. So naturally it can be seen as a way to cling on to the Bengali milieu which eludes most non resident Bengalis," says Sankar. He sees the translation of his works, as a way of reaching out to those who love and understand literature. " Vikram Seth had earlier read the Hindi translation of Chowringhee. So impressed was Seth that he suggested to the publisher that the book be translated into English so that readers across the world can read it. So the language in which my book is read doesn't matter. If it's appreciated for its qualities I'm more than happy," he sums up.
The spate of English translations of Bengali novels have found maximum takers among Bengalis themselves, busy discovering the literary gems of their mother tongue
"Trouble in Graveyard, Danger in Darjeeling and The Buccaneer of Bombay, these are my favourite Feluda stories," says 24-year-old Shalini Choudhury, a research fellow with Indian Statistical Institute. Most Bengalis who have grown up on the Ray family's seminal children's magazine, Sandesh, will find this bit of information preposterous. After all, Satyajit Ray never wrote them in English. "Buccaneer of Bombay? You mean Bombaiyer Bombete? I have grown up reading Feluda stories in Bengali and I can't imagine reading them in any other language," says Meghraj Moitra, 28, an employee of ABN Amro Bank.
While many other Bengalis might identify with Moitra's dismay, yet the truth remains that a generation of Bengalis have started identifying these perennial Bengali classics in their Anglicised avatars. "I studied in an English medium school. My second language was Hindi, which means I have never studied the Bengali language. Which is why I found the idea of even reading Bengali newspapers scary. My parents always used to talk about Feluda and other Bengali classics, which made me want to read them. So one fine day I picked up a translation of Feluda and have been hooked ever since," says Chowdhury. Sreyasi Ray, HR manager, Veloz Software, echoes the sentiment. " I read English translations of Bengali classics simply because it's the language I am comfortable in. as long as the essence of the novel is captured I don't care what language it is in," says Ray.
"Most translations of Bengali classics like Ray's Feluda series and Sunil Gangopadhyay are bought by young Bengali readers. Even though there is a growing number of non-Bengali readers too, almost 80 percent of the readers of the translations are Bengalis. This has always been the case. It's probably because there are many young readers who can't read or write in Bengali," says Pradeep Choudhury, manager in charge, Seagull Bookstore. Raju Burman, partner of Rupa & Co., which has published many Tagore translations, corroborates the observation . "There is a huge market for translations in Bengali classics in India and abroad. A lot of non- Bengalis and foreigners buy these books to initiate themselves to Bengali literature. But the bulk of our customers comprise Bengalis who don't have the means to read the original books. They can be NRIs or Kolkatans," says Burman.
Popular Bengali contemporary classics like Ray's Feluda series sell more in Kolkata than anywhere else. "As much as 40 per cent of the sales of Feluda books are made in Kolkata itself," says a senior official of Penguin India, which has published the translations of most Feluda novels.
For many Non Resident Bengalis these translations are, ironically, their only window to the Bengali milieu. "In translation such as Shankar's Chowringhee, Sunil Gangopadhyay's Those Days and of course the Feluda stories, I find the warmth of Bengali culture. I have never lived in Bengal and my perception of it is basically based on the accounts of my parents. So obviously, it's nostalgia-hued. And these translations in many ways have strengthened the perception," says 24-year-old Arunlekha Sengupta, an employee of Google Hyderabad, who is planning to buy many more such translations during her yearly trip to the city.
Reputed Bengali author Sankar, whose Chowringhee was recently translated by Penguin, acknowledges Sengupta's feelings. "My book is a celebration of the middle-class Bengali heartbeat as well as the cosmopolitan wave that washed the City of Joy with the fading of colonial rule. So naturally it can be seen as a way to cling on to the Bengali milieu which eludes most non resident Bengalis," says Sankar. He sees the translation of his works, as a way of reaching out to those who love and understand literature. " Vikram Seth had earlier read the Hindi translation of Chowringhee. So impressed was Seth that he suggested to the publisher that the book be translated into English so that readers across the world can read it. So the language in which my book is read doesn't matter. If it's appreciated for its qualities I'm more than happy," he sums up.
The lost world of libraries
Gargi Gupta & Arati Menon Carroll
The reading pleasure associated with the world of books no longer exists
“Lebrerii?” The cycle-rickshawwallah in front of the Sri Digamber Jain Lal Mandir had no idea there was a library in the vicinity, let alone three located within a radius of barely a kilometre from where he stood.
There was the Marwari Library some way down Chandni Chowk, the Hardayal Municipal Public Library down the lane that runs off Mati Das Chowk, and Delhi Public Library opposite the Old Delhi Railway Station. But the poor, illiterate rickshawwallah could hardly be blamed — obviously, few people ever asked to be taken to these places.
And yet, these are among three of the city’s oldest public libraries. The oldest, Hardayal Municipal Public Library, traces its history back to 1862, to the Institute Library, a reading club of books memsahibs read on the voyage to India.
The Marwari Library, founded in 1915 by Kedarnath Goenka, a freedom fighter, where everyone from Mahatma Gandhi to Madan Mohan Malviya came; and Delhi Public Library, inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951.
But, however distinguished the provenance of these three, as also that of the Dayal Singh Public Library in Delhi and other public libraries elsewhere in the country, they are all rather sad places today. Only PhD students come here now to trawl the dusty shelves of uncared for books, rummage through the crumbling cards and brave the apathetic sloth of the staff for the early and rare editions of novels and journals.
There’s another tribe of visitors — students and those studying for competitive exams, who are more interested in the newer stocks, the textbooks, journals, and (largly pedestrian) reference books.
As semi-government bodies, Delhi Public Library and Hardayal Municipal Public Library are no longer single libraries but a network of reading rooms, zonal and regional libraries spread out all over the city. But the result of this outreach has been that most of the money they get go into paying salaries with very little left for adding quality books to the collection or preserving what’s already there.
A library, everyone will agree, says a lot about a city, a country, its people. And Delhi doesn’t do badly on this score. As the capital city, it has a number of good libraries that showcase the range and depth of scholarship in the country, and are a rich source of material for researchers.
There are the eclectic collections at university libraries and clubs like the India International Centre and Delhi Gymkhana, more specialised ones at the Delhi School of Economics, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, National School of Drama and archival treasures at the Nehru Memorial Library and National Archives. But these, with a few exceptions, are out of bounds to the general public.
So where does someone in Mumbai who wants a book for nothing more than the pleasure of a good read go?
David Sassoon Library
152, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Fort
This institution, in the Kala Ghoda precinct, at 161 years old, is the oldest library in the city. Having recently been restored, the yellow malad stone facade, cobbled garden (a favourite for cultural soirees) and a grand teak staircase stand proud.
The terrace adjoining the reading room on the second floor with its chaise longues and reclining chairs is a favourite among bookworms and nappers alike. Their collection is about 40,000 books strong and with a rather nominal lifetime membership fees of Rs 5,000, the library still relies on the largesse of its patrons.
Asiatic Society
Town Hall, Fort
Born as the Literary Society of Bombay, it met for the first time in 1804. Tucked into the fading grandeur of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is a cache of antique volumes including a first edition copy of Dante’s Inferno. The Society’s holdings include over 3,000 manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Prakrit from all over India and Nepal. There is also a numismatic collection but you need permission to view this. Lifetime membership will cost you Rs 10,000.
American Center
4 New Marine Lines
This one is primarily a research and reference library that focuses on promoting American culture and politics. The 13,000 volumes, therefore, consist mainly of books, government publications and think tank reports that aid that understanding. It does also, though, have 135 magazines that otherwise may be hard (or expensive) to access. Members are charged Rs 400 for a year’s access.
Shemaroo
3 Om Chambers, August Kranti Marg, Kemps Corner
It all began in 1962, when Shemaroo pioneered Bombay’s first circulating book library. It still has over 13,000 members. Their packed children and teenage library sections offer hope about the continuing relevance of literature. A lifetime membership costs Rs 800 and you’re charged 10 per cent of each book’s price as rental fee.
British Council library
Mittal Tower “A” Wing, 1st floor, Nariman Point
Always enormously popular with students who appreciate the modern environment and efficient services, British Council libraries are modelled on the pattern of British public libraries. The range of reading material is probably the most diverse, both recreational and professional, in addition to music CDs and DVDs. They charge an annual fee of Rs 1,400.
Courtesy: Business Standard
The reading pleasure associated with the world of books no longer exists
“Lebrerii?” The cycle-rickshawwallah in front of the Sri Digamber Jain Lal Mandir had no idea there was a library in the vicinity, let alone three located within a radius of barely a kilometre from where he stood.
There was the Marwari Library some way down Chandni Chowk, the Hardayal Municipal Public Library down the lane that runs off Mati Das Chowk, and Delhi Public Library opposite the Old Delhi Railway Station. But the poor, illiterate rickshawwallah could hardly be blamed — obviously, few people ever asked to be taken to these places.
And yet, these are among three of the city’s oldest public libraries. The oldest, Hardayal Municipal Public Library, traces its history back to 1862, to the Institute Library, a reading club of books memsahibs read on the voyage to India.
The Marwari Library, founded in 1915 by Kedarnath Goenka, a freedom fighter, where everyone from Mahatma Gandhi to Madan Mohan Malviya came; and Delhi Public Library, inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951.
But, however distinguished the provenance of these three, as also that of the Dayal Singh Public Library in Delhi and other public libraries elsewhere in the country, they are all rather sad places today. Only PhD students come here now to trawl the dusty shelves of uncared for books, rummage through the crumbling cards and brave the apathetic sloth of the staff for the early and rare editions of novels and journals.
There’s another tribe of visitors — students and those studying for competitive exams, who are more interested in the newer stocks, the textbooks, journals, and (largly pedestrian) reference books.
As semi-government bodies, Delhi Public Library and Hardayal Municipal Public Library are no longer single libraries but a network of reading rooms, zonal and regional libraries spread out all over the city. But the result of this outreach has been that most of the money they get go into paying salaries with very little left for adding quality books to the collection or preserving what’s already there.
A library, everyone will agree, says a lot about a city, a country, its people. And Delhi doesn’t do badly on this score. As the capital city, it has a number of good libraries that showcase the range and depth of scholarship in the country, and are a rich source of material for researchers.
There are the eclectic collections at university libraries and clubs like the India International Centre and Delhi Gymkhana, more specialised ones at the Delhi School of Economics, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, National School of Drama and archival treasures at the Nehru Memorial Library and National Archives. But these, with a few exceptions, are out of bounds to the general public.
So where does someone in Mumbai who wants a book for nothing more than the pleasure of a good read go?
David Sassoon Library
152, Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Fort
This institution, in the Kala Ghoda precinct, at 161 years old, is the oldest library in the city. Having recently been restored, the yellow malad stone facade, cobbled garden (a favourite for cultural soirees) and a grand teak staircase stand proud.
The terrace adjoining the reading room on the second floor with its chaise longues and reclining chairs is a favourite among bookworms and nappers alike. Their collection is about 40,000 books strong and with a rather nominal lifetime membership fees of Rs 5,000, the library still relies on the largesse of its patrons.
Asiatic Society
Town Hall, Fort
Born as the Literary Society of Bombay, it met for the first time in 1804. Tucked into the fading grandeur of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is a cache of antique volumes including a first edition copy of Dante’s Inferno. The Society’s holdings include over 3,000 manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Prakrit from all over India and Nepal. There is also a numismatic collection but you need permission to view this. Lifetime membership will cost you Rs 10,000.
American Center
4 New Marine Lines
This one is primarily a research and reference library that focuses on promoting American culture and politics. The 13,000 volumes, therefore, consist mainly of books, government publications and think tank reports that aid that understanding. It does also, though, have 135 magazines that otherwise may be hard (or expensive) to access. Members are charged Rs 400 for a year’s access.
Shemaroo
3 Om Chambers, August Kranti Marg, Kemps Corner
It all began in 1962, when Shemaroo pioneered Bombay’s first circulating book library. It still has over 13,000 members. Their packed children and teenage library sections offer hope about the continuing relevance of literature. A lifetime membership costs Rs 800 and you’re charged 10 per cent of each book’s price as rental fee.
British Council library
Mittal Tower “A” Wing, 1st floor, Nariman Point
Always enormously popular with students who appreciate the modern environment and efficient services, British Council libraries are modelled on the pattern of British public libraries. The range of reading material is probably the most diverse, both recreational and professional, in addition to music CDs and DVDs. They charge an annual fee of Rs 1,400.
Courtesy: Business Standard
Seven cardinal rules for bibliophiles
Of course, you can head to Landmark, where everyone now goes. Or go to Strand, catch Jagat's eye and make sure he gets the book you want.
Or you can get your hands grubby and find a treasure on the streets of the city. After all, the Heras museum beaks will tell you that the oldest book in their collection was found on the streets...
Don't go where everyone tells you to go
Bibliomanes are notoriously nasty people. They will not actually tell you where the good books are. You must find out for yourself.
Go where the books are
Stop your rickshaw when you see a raddiwalla with a pile of books leaning precariously out of his thela. Stop your cab when you see a pile of books on a cart.
Stop when you see a circulating library. There are more places in the world than the street near the University library, Matunga circle, Smoker's Corner on P M Road and the New and Secondhand Book Stall in Dhobi Talao.
Don't fixate
You will not find the book you want. Do not go out with a list unless it is a list that has Robert Ludlum and John Grisham on it. Go out and see what books are available and see what you think you might like to read.
Bargain hard
But not too hard. When the chap behind the counter says that he wants Rs 100 for a book, your first thought should be, "I would have been paying Rs 500 for this at a bookstore."
Then you should think about how much you want to pay and how much the book is going to enrich your life.
If you need access, buy something
The raddiwalla looks fat and uninviting. Maybe he's had a bad day; maybe his wife has run away with the grocer.
The best way to cheer him up is to buy something, a magazine for Rs 10, say, to ease your way into the interior of his shop.
Ask about exchanges
Many raddiwallas are willing to let you take a book for a test run.
This means you can take a book, read it and return it if you don't think it's a keeper or something you will return to. They'll squiggle some hieroglyphics on the back pages of the book and you get to read and return.
Send other people
Raddiwallas will keep what sells. There are some who will only keep knitting pattern books and recipe books. Others keep porn (for guys who don't have access to the internet) and dishoom-dishoom books.
Your raddiwalla will start looking around for literature and poetry or whatever it is that rings your bells, if he knows he has someone who will buy it.
How does the semi-literate Rajasthani or Gujarati know literature from pulp?
Trust me, he knows. He'll figure it out. And yes, this means not being nasty and beating the bibliomaniacs at their own game.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Or you can get your hands grubby and find a treasure on the streets of the city. After all, the Heras museum beaks will tell you that the oldest book in their collection was found on the streets...
Don't go where everyone tells you to go
Bibliomanes are notoriously nasty people. They will not actually tell you where the good books are. You must find out for yourself.
Go where the books are
Stop your rickshaw when you see a raddiwalla with a pile of books leaning precariously out of his thela. Stop your cab when you see a pile of books on a cart.
Stop when you see a circulating library. There are more places in the world than the street near the University library, Matunga circle, Smoker's Corner on P M Road and the New and Secondhand Book Stall in Dhobi Talao.
Don't fixate
You will not find the book you want. Do not go out with a list unless it is a list that has Robert Ludlum and John Grisham on it. Go out and see what books are available and see what you think you might like to read.
Bargain hard
But not too hard. When the chap behind the counter says that he wants Rs 100 for a book, your first thought should be, "I would have been paying Rs 500 for this at a bookstore."
Then you should think about how much you want to pay and how much the book is going to enrich your life.
If you need access, buy something
The raddiwalla looks fat and uninviting. Maybe he's had a bad day; maybe his wife has run away with the grocer.
The best way to cheer him up is to buy something, a magazine for Rs 10, say, to ease your way into the interior of his shop.
Ask about exchanges
Many raddiwallas are willing to let you take a book for a test run.
This means you can take a book, read it and return it if you don't think it's a keeper or something you will return to. They'll squiggle some hieroglyphics on the back pages of the book and you get to read and return.
Send other people
Raddiwallas will keep what sells. There are some who will only keep knitting pattern books and recipe books. Others keep porn (for guys who don't have access to the internet) and dishoom-dishoom books.
Your raddiwalla will start looking around for literature and poetry or whatever it is that rings your bells, if he knows he has someone who will buy it.
How does the semi-literate Rajasthani or Gujarati know literature from pulp?
Trust me, he knows. He'll figure it out. And yes, this means not being nasty and beating the bibliomaniacs at their own game.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Smell of old books
For generations of book-lovers in Calcutta, foraging through books in that mecca of the bibliophile, College Street, carries memories. Once College Street used to be one of the few haunts in the city for books, with Gol Park and Free School Street as alternative venues.
The choice is much wider for today’s young people, with stores like Starmark and Crossword providing a one shop stop for books ranging from the Goosebumps series to ancient Greek literature. Most of the youngsters today are deprived of the flavour of old book hunting. Mansoor Alam, who has been selling books for more than two decades at stall No. 6 in College Street, said: “Young people still come. But they look more for text books, not fiction.”
“I mostly buy second hand music books from College Street, since they are expensive to get first hand,” said Tanmoy Das Lala, a student of St Xavier’s Collegiate School.
Buying books at second hand is a practice where money is only one aspect. It is more to do with unearthing rarities: an out of print book, or the first edition of a best-seller or a classic.
Inam Hussain, who studies English at Jadavpur University, has a fine collection of comics acquired from the area around Gariahat-Gol Park, another haunt for second-hand books, though not on the same scale as College Street. “I used to come here to buy old Richie Rich, Batman and Archies comics. They never cost more than Rs 10.”
The rock music buff has also managed to unearth some old issues of RAVE. He has treasures like the 567-page copy of The Giant Book of the Supernatural edited by Colin Wilson for Rs 80 and Video Rock with “coloured photographs” for Rs 40 to show for his patient foraging.
An old book carries its own history — whether of the publishing house or of the chain of owners it has passed through.
Does it irk him to find a book inscribed by a stranger’s initials, to turn the page and come upon his/her notes along the margin? For Tanmoy, the answer is a firm negative. “The books become mine once I buy them. I love the smell of old books, the feeling of it having passed through hands other than mine.”
And there are the quirky owners who leave marks of originality on books: “I have a book that has the legend ‘Handled with care’ written on it,” recalled Inam. “The only problem with buying old books is that they are sometimes damaged. The copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, which I bought recently, had some pages missing,” he said.
For Tanmoy, old books have archival value. Collecting old books is a practice that runs in their family. “My parents shopped for old books when they were MBBS students. Some of their books are still there in the house,” he said. He has a late 19th century edition of composer John Field’s Nocturnes and a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that was owned by his great grandfather once.
But the practice is on the wane today. With less time to spare and more disposable income, stores like Landmark and Crossword are the preferred stopover for youngsters.
“Sales have been going down for the last 10 years. There are fewer people wanting to read fiction. We have to balance it with reference books. People don’t have the patience to search through books now,” laments Alam, the book-seller at College Street.
Romila Saha
Courtesy: The Telegraph
The choice is much wider for today’s young people, with stores like Starmark and Crossword providing a one shop stop for books ranging from the Goosebumps series to ancient Greek literature. Most of the youngsters today are deprived of the flavour of old book hunting. Mansoor Alam, who has been selling books for more than two decades at stall No. 6 in College Street, said: “Young people still come. But they look more for text books, not fiction.”
“I mostly buy second hand music books from College Street, since they are expensive to get first hand,” said Tanmoy Das Lala, a student of St Xavier’s Collegiate School.
Buying books at second hand is a practice where money is only one aspect. It is more to do with unearthing rarities: an out of print book, or the first edition of a best-seller or a classic.
Inam Hussain, who studies English at Jadavpur University, has a fine collection of comics acquired from the area around Gariahat-Gol Park, another haunt for second-hand books, though not on the same scale as College Street. “I used to come here to buy old Richie Rich, Batman and Archies comics. They never cost more than Rs 10.”
The rock music buff has also managed to unearth some old issues of RAVE. He has treasures like the 567-page copy of The Giant Book of the Supernatural edited by Colin Wilson for Rs 80 and Video Rock with “coloured photographs” for Rs 40 to show for his patient foraging.
An old book carries its own history — whether of the publishing house or of the chain of owners it has passed through.
Does it irk him to find a book inscribed by a stranger’s initials, to turn the page and come upon his/her notes along the margin? For Tanmoy, the answer is a firm negative. “The books become mine once I buy them. I love the smell of old books, the feeling of it having passed through hands other than mine.”
And there are the quirky owners who leave marks of originality on books: “I have a book that has the legend ‘Handled with care’ written on it,” recalled Inam. “The only problem with buying old books is that they are sometimes damaged. The copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, which I bought recently, had some pages missing,” he said.
For Tanmoy, old books have archival value. Collecting old books is a practice that runs in their family. “My parents shopped for old books when they were MBBS students. Some of their books are still there in the house,” he said. He has a late 19th century edition of composer John Field’s Nocturnes and a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that was owned by his great grandfather once.
But the practice is on the wane today. With less time to spare and more disposable income, stores like Landmark and Crossword are the preferred stopover for youngsters.
“Sales have been going down for the last 10 years. There are fewer people wanting to read fiction. We have to balance it with reference books. People don’t have the patience to search through books now,” laments Alam, the book-seller at College Street.
Romila Saha
Courtesy: The Telegraph
It’s now a ‘manage-mind business’
D. Murali & G. Ramesh
What is at the root of all organisational problems? “It’s the mind,” say Swami Anubhavananda and Prof Arya Kumar, the authors of the ‘Management with a Difference’ (www.anebooks.com). “Understanding the mind, and managing it will improve personal and professional effectiveness,” they explain in the book, banking on the insights and wisdom of the ancient lore, the Bhagvad Gita.
Both the authors are associated with the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani. Anubhavananda teaches management, yoga and Vedanta at BITS. Kumar heads the entrepreneurship development and IPR (intellectual property rights) unit and is also group leader of Economics and Finance at the Institute. A course titled ‘Indian Wisdom for Modern Management’ devised by the two was introduced at BITS during 2003-04.
“The students were initially surprised to find the Gita as the source material for their management course,” reminisce the authors, while recently speaking to Business Line. “However on listening to lectures, and writing their assignments, they were extremely happy to discover a management model suitable for modern India, while at the same time retaining the contact with the roots of our culture.”
The two gurus scotch doubts about the acceptability of management principles based on the Gita by people of other religions. “Wisdom does not fall in the purview of copyright or monopoly of any religion,” they declare. “The Gita is not parochial in its approach. Its views are addressed to mankind of all times.”
The ‘uniqueness’ of their management approach is that it is based on the mutual growth of the company and the employees together. “Emphasis is given on identifying the dormant potentialities of the employees to benefit them and the company. It’s a ‘value-based management’ with the greatest emphasis on understanding about the mind, and management of mind,” the authors elaborate.
If the emphasis on ‘knowing the mind’ makes you as uncomfortable as an exhortation for navel-gazing, the BITS teachers have a disarming analogy: “It’s like knowing what is below the bonnet.” As long as the car runs smoothly, problems don’t exist. “But after some time, and ultimately, we see many such mind-vehicles waiting for their turn in the psychiatric garage!” We have only one mind, which is not replaceable like a car; hence the need, the authors argue.
While welfare of the company is high on their list, they demand that sufficient opportunities be given to the erring or the adamant employee to improve. “If things don’t work out well an alternative placement could be tried. Many a time we are unable to judge the best potentiality in an employee and, as a result, he is wrongly employed.” So, the challenge of the manager is to view him “from the perspective of a third person or with what is known as ‘third eye’.”
But the authors doubt if an emotional perspective could help at the workplace. “Emotions are certainly ornaments on human personality but emotionalism is a shackle,” the authors opine. Being emotional can be a burden to oneself and to others, they caution. “It is always better that we do our duties intelligently and deal with the people with emotional beauty without getting corrupted by the emotions.”
To Anubhavananda and Kumar, knowledge management (KM) has a key place in management. KM, they aver, “capitalises on ‘the most precious resource of an organisation, i.e. human assets, by creating a culture and environment to unlock their creativity. That way, your people would keep coming up with innovative solutions to problems, so as to effectively manage and create change.”
In a culture of KM, guarding one’s knowledge, or withholding it from others, for fear of losing one’s prominence has no place in an organisation. Only an incompetent person, whose knowledge and wisdom are in short supply, would feel such fear, say the authors. “Knowledge is infinite and there cannot be any fear of losing one’s prominence in life. Else, none of the scientists would have published their results and their knowledge would have been buried with them.”
Advocating a moral management philosophy to a work-world that is populated by people who are consumed by their own desires and ambitions may look like a tall task. But the authors are undeterred in their efforts. “Weeds definitely grow along with the main crop in any field. Does it mean we should promote the unhealthy weeds?” ask Anubhavananda and Kumar. “Morality and ethics should be the basis of ‘Management with a Difference’,” they urge.
“In fact, of the 200 CEOs studied by Tony and Oster (1998), those who used religious principles in their daily decision-making had more successful companies than those who did not.”
The central message of the Gita is not religion, though, but an exposition of the secret of action: “Do your duty without hankering for results,” as Krishna counselled to Arjun, a “dynamic personality facing the ultimate challenge of his life on the battlefield.” The divine guidance may seem a far cry when confronted by the ground reality: of executives by the droves craving for rewards despite doing very little to merit the same. To those who wonder if the ageless teaching has eventually become a cliché, the BITS teachers offer this reassurance: “The truth does not change. It has, in fact, become more relevant.”
They interpret the maxim thus: “While doing your jobs in the present do not waste your energy and attention about the future possible failures, or do not take results for granted because of over-confidence while executing the job. When we are fully in tune with the job at hand, results are bound to be the best.”
A cheering thought, especially to those who aim at excellence. But what is excellence? “Gaining external success along with internal peace,” define the authors, from a vedantic angle. Do not run after success because you are not internally peaceful, they advise. For, “External success is our expression of inner peace and not an inner struggle.”
Courtesy: The Hindu
What is at the root of all organisational problems? “It’s the mind,” say Swami Anubhavananda and Prof Arya Kumar, the authors of the ‘Management with a Difference’ (www.anebooks.com). “Understanding the mind, and managing it will improve personal and professional effectiveness,” they explain in the book, banking on the insights and wisdom of the ancient lore, the Bhagvad Gita.
Both the authors are associated with the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS), Pilani. Anubhavananda teaches management, yoga and Vedanta at BITS. Kumar heads the entrepreneurship development and IPR (intellectual property rights) unit and is also group leader of Economics and Finance at the Institute. A course titled ‘Indian Wisdom for Modern Management’ devised by the two was introduced at BITS during 2003-04.
“The students were initially surprised to find the Gita as the source material for their management course,” reminisce the authors, while recently speaking to Business Line. “However on listening to lectures, and writing their assignments, they were extremely happy to discover a management model suitable for modern India, while at the same time retaining the contact with the roots of our culture.”
The two gurus scotch doubts about the acceptability of management principles based on the Gita by people of other religions. “Wisdom does not fall in the purview of copyright or monopoly of any religion,” they declare. “The Gita is not parochial in its approach. Its views are addressed to mankind of all times.”
The ‘uniqueness’ of their management approach is that it is based on the mutual growth of the company and the employees together. “Emphasis is given on identifying the dormant potentialities of the employees to benefit them and the company. It’s a ‘value-based management’ with the greatest emphasis on understanding about the mind, and management of mind,” the authors elaborate.
If the emphasis on ‘knowing the mind’ makes you as uncomfortable as an exhortation for navel-gazing, the BITS teachers have a disarming analogy: “It’s like knowing what is below the bonnet.” As long as the car runs smoothly, problems don’t exist. “But after some time, and ultimately, we see many such mind-vehicles waiting for their turn in the psychiatric garage!” We have only one mind, which is not replaceable like a car; hence the need, the authors argue.
While welfare of the company is high on their list, they demand that sufficient opportunities be given to the erring or the adamant employee to improve. “If things don’t work out well an alternative placement could be tried. Many a time we are unable to judge the best potentiality in an employee and, as a result, he is wrongly employed.” So, the challenge of the manager is to view him “from the perspective of a third person or with what is known as ‘third eye’.”
But the authors doubt if an emotional perspective could help at the workplace. “Emotions are certainly ornaments on human personality but emotionalism is a shackle,” the authors opine. Being emotional can be a burden to oneself and to others, they caution. “It is always better that we do our duties intelligently and deal with the people with emotional beauty without getting corrupted by the emotions.”
To Anubhavananda and Kumar, knowledge management (KM) has a key place in management. KM, they aver, “capitalises on ‘the most precious resource of an organisation, i.e. human assets, by creating a culture and environment to unlock their creativity. That way, your people would keep coming up with innovative solutions to problems, so as to effectively manage and create change.”
In a culture of KM, guarding one’s knowledge, or withholding it from others, for fear of losing one’s prominence has no place in an organisation. Only an incompetent person, whose knowledge and wisdom are in short supply, would feel such fear, say the authors. “Knowledge is infinite and there cannot be any fear of losing one’s prominence in life. Else, none of the scientists would have published their results and their knowledge would have been buried with them.”
Advocating a moral management philosophy to a work-world that is populated by people who are consumed by their own desires and ambitions may look like a tall task. But the authors are undeterred in their efforts. “Weeds definitely grow along with the main crop in any field. Does it mean we should promote the unhealthy weeds?” ask Anubhavananda and Kumar. “Morality and ethics should be the basis of ‘Management with a Difference’,” they urge.
“In fact, of the 200 CEOs studied by Tony and Oster (1998), those who used religious principles in their daily decision-making had more successful companies than those who did not.”
The central message of the Gita is not religion, though, but an exposition of the secret of action: “Do your duty without hankering for results,” as Krishna counselled to Arjun, a “dynamic personality facing the ultimate challenge of his life on the battlefield.” The divine guidance may seem a far cry when confronted by the ground reality: of executives by the droves craving for rewards despite doing very little to merit the same. To those who wonder if the ageless teaching has eventually become a cliché, the BITS teachers offer this reassurance: “The truth does not change. It has, in fact, become more relevant.”
They interpret the maxim thus: “While doing your jobs in the present do not waste your energy and attention about the future possible failures, or do not take results for granted because of over-confidence while executing the job. When we are fully in tune with the job at hand, results are bound to be the best.”
A cheering thought, especially to those who aim at excellence. But what is excellence? “Gaining external success along with internal peace,” define the authors, from a vedantic angle. Do not run after success because you are not internally peaceful, they advise. For, “External success is our expression of inner peace and not an inner struggle.”
Courtesy: The Hindu
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The New Face of Multilingual Publishing Industry
Yes, India as a destination for outsourcing ePublishing is the buzz word today. Companies like Macmillan India and Thomson Press have identified the caliber of India decades back in the genre of ePublishing. And today, Fortune 500 giants to smaller organizations are destining India to get the work outsourced. Statistics reveal that the outsourced publishing market in India is about $3 billion! What lures companies to India? What are the professional capabilities of Indian organizations? How is the output different from the rest? The answers are revealed here.
One among the main factors that entices companies to India is the cheaper costs that are involved. When the outsourcing work is done in India the cost is reduced up to 50% and thereby there is no place for worries about burning a hole in the pocket. Also, India boasts to have a track record of more than 100 years experience in the domestic English publishing industry and has more than 15,000 publishers. Backed with the support of the satisfied customers and the power of professional resources India is climbing the heights of glory with panache.
The publishing outsource services provided in India covers an eclectic range from page-making to warehousing. The growing fame of India in outsourcing publishing has resulted in the mushrooming of such companies in the country which in turn resulted in growing competitions. But, performance is always appreciated and is applauded at its best. This is where companies like Lyric Labs, one of the pioneers in offering language translation services, come into a role. With adept professionals and streamlined process such companies makes others to look upon Indian publishing with respect.
Lyric Labs, offers multi lingual publishing services for both the print and online media. And the professional team here lends support in indesign, quark express, Photoshop, Illustrator, corel draw development. Also, the company has expertise in electronic publishing technologies like XML, HTML, etc. When the work is done by professionals like Lyric Labs there is no place for worries in regard to the quality of the work since, quality is double checked prior to delivery by the quality assurance department.
One among the main factors that entices companies to India is the cheaper costs that are involved. When the outsourcing work is done in India the cost is reduced up to 50% and thereby there is no place for worries about burning a hole in the pocket. Also, India boasts to have a track record of more than 100 years experience in the domestic English publishing industry and has more than 15,000 publishers. Backed with the support of the satisfied customers and the power of professional resources India is climbing the heights of glory with panache.
The publishing outsource services provided in India covers an eclectic range from page-making to warehousing. The growing fame of India in outsourcing publishing has resulted in the mushrooming of such companies in the country which in turn resulted in growing competitions. But, performance is always appreciated and is applauded at its best. This is where companies like Lyric Labs, one of the pioneers in offering language translation services, come into a role. With adept professionals and streamlined process such companies makes others to look upon Indian publishing with respect.
Lyric Labs, offers multi lingual publishing services for both the print and online media. And the professional team here lends support in indesign, quark express, Photoshop, Illustrator, corel draw development. Also, the company has expertise in electronic publishing technologies like XML, HTML, etc. When the work is done by professionals like Lyric Labs there is no place for worries in regard to the quality of the work since, quality is double checked prior to delivery by the quality assurance department.
A holistic vision for arts and culture
Culture activist Neville Tuli feels India today stands at a unique threshold where art is genuinely emerging as a capital asset. Madhur Tankha finds out more from him...
Books are another extension of his abiding passion for art and culture. No wonder Osian's Connoisseurs of Arts founder chairman Neville Tuli wants to rekindle the love and respect for good old books and the written word among the middle class as well as the elite.
To achieve this objective, Neville has now simultaneously launched Osian's Publishing and Design House in pursuit of his vision for placing the arts and its creative value system at the heart of the country's developmental framework.
While the publishing division will focus on illustrated books on art, cinema, architectural heritage, popular culture and philosophy, the literary agency will deal with works of fiction and non-fiction.
From building a top class archive-library-collection of our culture to establishing the country's first auction house to film festival dedicated to Asian and Arab cinema, Neville has seen to it that Osian's develops a holistic infrastructure for the arts and culture.
Speaking about his background, Neville says he did his schooling in Mumbai's The Cathedral from 1975 to 1979. "Then I went to the United Kingdom for further studies. When I returned to India in 1994, I had a different outlook towards things around me than when I was 10 years. Art and culture are not penetrating the value system of our country. We have had a great tradition for learning, the Upanishadic concept. But now we have a huge black economy. So the mindset has to be changed," he says.
"At the Osian's," Neville says, "the auction house for the arts has been utilised to cross-subsidise subjects such as Asian cinema, popular culture, photography and most importantly the build up of the archive and our forthcoming museum -- The Osianama." In fact, the museum is now being taken forward to strengthen the infrastructure, supporting literature, poetry and philosophy. "Once these links are consolidated and each cultural discipline is interlinked with the other in a deeper respect for Indian arts, heritage will fundamentally progress and a practical development force will emerge which so far the cultural intelligentsia does not possess."
Noting that Osian's has been using its corporate entity as a cultural basis, Neville says while the intelligentsia has ideas it does not want to shoulder the financial aspect. "To change this thinking, we want to build our knowledge base and share it with our people. If there is sincerity then wealth will follow. Every human creativity needs to be nurtured, supported with an infrastructure that looks after financial needs. There should be integrity of intellectual debate, fearlessness and compassion. If we focus on material obstacles then we cannot progress. My role is to create new kind of idealism and integrity. We should have clear vision and purpose."
In two to three years, Neville sees the emergence of a new crop of writers, poets and philosophers getting their economic reward for their works. "We want to change the atmosphere that exists. We are far behind the West, as we cannot get some of our precious books written by Indian authors. These books are either in the U.S. or the U.K. We don't even have a memorabilia on our books. In the world of Internet, our mind is increasingly getting incapable of absorbing knowledge, grammar, synthesis and the art of letter writing. You know why letters fetch such high price during auctions because they aren't written anymore. So we want books to fight the enormous decay," says Neville, whose heart bled when he first saw books being sold on the streets of Mumbai.
Pointing out that Hindi films have not been able to achieve great success, as they haven't been able to form a connection with our literature, philosophy, textile and drama, Neville says one cannot see things in isolation.
"Once the cinematic culture can be transformed into one which sees filmmaking as first and foremost a great art form and thereafter entertainment that also fulfils a clear financial obligation we have the next major paradigm shift in the cultural infrastructure-building journey."
According to Neville, India today stands at a unique threshold where art is genuinely emerging as a capital asset with financial institutions ready to trust it as collateral and the public ready to open their minds to a re-examination of old pre-conceptions regarding the functionality and significance of an artist and cultural heritage.
Courtesy: The Hindu
Books are another extension of his abiding passion for art and culture. No wonder Osian's Connoisseurs of Arts founder chairman Neville Tuli wants to rekindle the love and respect for good old books and the written word among the middle class as well as the elite.
To achieve this objective, Neville has now simultaneously launched Osian's Publishing and Design House in pursuit of his vision for placing the arts and its creative value system at the heart of the country's developmental framework.
While the publishing division will focus on illustrated books on art, cinema, architectural heritage, popular culture and philosophy, the literary agency will deal with works of fiction and non-fiction.
From building a top class archive-library-collection of our culture to establishing the country's first auction house to film festival dedicated to Asian and Arab cinema, Neville has seen to it that Osian's develops a holistic infrastructure for the arts and culture.
Speaking about his background, Neville says he did his schooling in Mumbai's The Cathedral from 1975 to 1979. "Then I went to the United Kingdom for further studies. When I returned to India in 1994, I had a different outlook towards things around me than when I was 10 years. Art and culture are not penetrating the value system of our country. We have had a great tradition for learning, the Upanishadic concept. But now we have a huge black economy. So the mindset has to be changed," he says.
"At the Osian's," Neville says, "the auction house for the arts has been utilised to cross-subsidise subjects such as Asian cinema, popular culture, photography and most importantly the build up of the archive and our forthcoming museum -- The Osianama." In fact, the museum is now being taken forward to strengthen the infrastructure, supporting literature, poetry and philosophy. "Once these links are consolidated and each cultural discipline is interlinked with the other in a deeper respect for Indian arts, heritage will fundamentally progress and a practical development force will emerge which so far the cultural intelligentsia does not possess."
Noting that Osian's has been using its corporate entity as a cultural basis, Neville says while the intelligentsia has ideas it does not want to shoulder the financial aspect. "To change this thinking, we want to build our knowledge base and share it with our people. If there is sincerity then wealth will follow. Every human creativity needs to be nurtured, supported with an infrastructure that looks after financial needs. There should be integrity of intellectual debate, fearlessness and compassion. If we focus on material obstacles then we cannot progress. My role is to create new kind of idealism and integrity. We should have clear vision and purpose."
In two to three years, Neville sees the emergence of a new crop of writers, poets and philosophers getting their economic reward for their works. "We want to change the atmosphere that exists. We are far behind the West, as we cannot get some of our precious books written by Indian authors. These books are either in the U.S. or the U.K. We don't even have a memorabilia on our books. In the world of Internet, our mind is increasingly getting incapable of absorbing knowledge, grammar, synthesis and the art of letter writing. You know why letters fetch such high price during auctions because they aren't written anymore. So we want books to fight the enormous decay," says Neville, whose heart bled when he first saw books being sold on the streets of Mumbai.
Pointing out that Hindi films have not been able to achieve great success, as they haven't been able to form a connection with our literature, philosophy, textile and drama, Neville says one cannot see things in isolation.
"Once the cinematic culture can be transformed into one which sees filmmaking as first and foremost a great art form and thereafter entertainment that also fulfils a clear financial obligation we have the next major paradigm shift in the cultural infrastructure-building journey."
According to Neville, India today stands at a unique threshold where art is genuinely emerging as a capital asset with financial institutions ready to trust it as collateral and the public ready to open their minds to a re-examination of old pre-conceptions regarding the functionality and significance of an artist and cultural heritage.
Courtesy: The Hindu
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Pirates of the copyright
Nishant
Unlike Jack Sparrow, the pirate with a heart of gold, his modern-day avatars only seem to be interested in filling their own pots of gold to the brim. And if their avarice translates into stupendous losses for authors and publishers, well, so be it. For the uninitiated, we're referring to pirated versions of popular fiction books that seem to be giving tough competition to their more expensive, 'original' cousins.
These cheap, poor-quality versions of popular books are flooding the market and this despite the fact that world famous authors like JK Rowling have taken up cudgels against the culprits. Rowling for instance, has already sued a website for selling pirated versions of her bestsellers. For avid reader and management consultant Pavan Kumar, "Books are like an asset and one cannot compromise on quality when buying one." On the other hand, there are also the likes of Rachna Rishi, a student, who says, "I'm fond of reading, but cannot afford the expensive original prints, so I go in for the duplicates which are cheaper. After all, the content remains the same."
And booksellers like Md Shameem ensure that there is no dearth of such cheap, off-the-street material. For Shameem, who deals in pirated books, it's as simple as demand and supply. Ask him why he sells pirated books and he'll tell you he does it, "Because people buy these books."
An attitude which has the likes of YP Singh, author of the bestseller Carnage Of Angels, livid. While Singh agrees that books don't come cheap, he also feels that, "Books are priced keeping in mind the intellectual labour put in by the author. But slashing costs will not help curb piracy either," says Singh. Not that Sandeep Dutt, CEO of a well-known chain of bookstores agrees. According to Dutt, "The best way publishers can curb piracy is by following the concept of a realistic pricing strategy. It is indeed difficult for a pirate to come up with a duplicate version of a bestseller, priced as low as Rs 95." Making readers accountable, he adds that they should also make a conscious effort to stay away from pirated stuff.
Or perhaps publishers could take a leaf from this optical storage manufacturing giant's book. The company recently pulled off a virtual coup by releasing a Tamil film catalogue at a price that is guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of movie buffs: Rs 28 for the CD pack and Rs 34 per DVD. Their aim is to acquire 40 per cent of the movie content produced in India in the coming years. Their pricing strategy will also kill the pirated market which is as big as Rs 20,000 crore approximately.
Time people began reading between the lines, eh?
Courtesy: Times of India
Unlike Jack Sparrow, the pirate with a heart of gold, his modern-day avatars only seem to be interested in filling their own pots of gold to the brim. And if their avarice translates into stupendous losses for authors and publishers, well, so be it. For the uninitiated, we're referring to pirated versions of popular fiction books that seem to be giving tough competition to their more expensive, 'original' cousins.
These cheap, poor-quality versions of popular books are flooding the market and this despite the fact that world famous authors like JK Rowling have taken up cudgels against the culprits. Rowling for instance, has already sued a website for selling pirated versions of her bestsellers. For avid reader and management consultant Pavan Kumar, "Books are like an asset and one cannot compromise on quality when buying one." On the other hand, there are also the likes of Rachna Rishi, a student, who says, "I'm fond of reading, but cannot afford the expensive original prints, so I go in for the duplicates which are cheaper. After all, the content remains the same."
And booksellers like Md Shameem ensure that there is no dearth of such cheap, off-the-street material. For Shameem, who deals in pirated books, it's as simple as demand and supply. Ask him why he sells pirated books and he'll tell you he does it, "Because people buy these books."
An attitude which has the likes of YP Singh, author of the bestseller Carnage Of Angels, livid. While Singh agrees that books don't come cheap, he also feels that, "Books are priced keeping in mind the intellectual labour put in by the author. But slashing costs will not help curb piracy either," says Singh. Not that Sandeep Dutt, CEO of a well-known chain of bookstores agrees. According to Dutt, "The best way publishers can curb piracy is by following the concept of a realistic pricing strategy. It is indeed difficult for a pirate to come up with a duplicate version of a bestseller, priced as low as Rs 95." Making readers accountable, he adds that they should also make a conscious effort to stay away from pirated stuff.
Or perhaps publishers could take a leaf from this optical storage manufacturing giant's book. The company recently pulled off a virtual coup by releasing a Tamil film catalogue at a price that is guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of movie buffs: Rs 28 for the CD pack and Rs 34 per DVD. Their aim is to acquire 40 per cent of the movie content produced in India in the coming years. Their pricing strategy will also kill the pirated market which is as big as Rs 20,000 crore approximately.
Time people began reading between the lines, eh?
Courtesy: Times of India
Another forgotten food culture to the fore
VIKRAM DOCTOR
My Oriya friend flipped through the copy of Healthy Oriya Cooking by Bijoylaxmi Hota and Kabita Pattanaik (Rupa Books), and sniffed. "How can an authentic Oriya cookbook not start with paukhalo?" he asked.
He was referring to the dish of lightly fermented rice which many Oriyas would insist is an essential part of an authentic Oriya meal — as is the nap that must follow thanks to the drowsiness induced by its mildly alcoholic nature. Bengalis call it panta-bhat and make it to use up extra rice, but on this matter at least, I think, Oriyas, so long forced to live be overshadowed by Bengalis, will resist attempts at appropriation. Paukhalo is emblematic of Oriya food, which is why friend was disdainful of any Oriya cookbook that didn’t start with it.
In defence of Hota and Pattanaik, they do give a recipe for it as pakhal (just not upfront), describing it as a summer food with several health benefits: "First it has a high cooling effect... Secondly fermented cereal protects the liver. Thirdly pakhal is full of yeast, which promotes healthier cell production." I am not sure how medically reliable their advice is, especially since later they make dubious assertions about the ability of coconut to inactivate viruses like measles, herpes and even HIV. But this sort of stuff is standard to many health books and can be ignored as one turns straight to the recipes.
And these are certainly very welcome. As our knowledge of Indian regional cuisines has developed, Oriya food has remained one of the biggest blank spots. Renowned anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, in his essay How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India (1988) even suggested gloomily that regionalisation accentuates this: "In the jostling of the various local and regional traditions for appreciation and mutual recognition, certain linguistic and regional traditions with greater access to urban resources, institutions, and media are pushing humbler neighbours out of the cosmopolitan view: Thus Telugu food is being progressively pushed out of sight by Tamil cuisine, Oriya by Bengali cuisine, Kannada by Marathi, Rajasthani by Gujarati, and Kashmiri by Punjabi."
Of late, this process has stopped, for several reasons. Greater prosperity moves people away from old eating habits, but also sets up a counter reaction making them aware of what they are losing. People may still not make traditional food regularly, but they will attempt to preserve them in cookbooks or on special occasions, like weddings, or at specialised restaurants. In some cases, even if a region’s food has not got recognition, the food of specific communities within it has: so Kannada food is still little known outside the state, but the food of Mangalore or of the Udipi Shettys has become well known. Sometimes a concept like Kashmir’s wazawan feast or Avadh’s dumpukht technique has become a useful way to sell those cuisines.
Politicians have also helped their home cuisines: thanks to Laloo we know how important sattu is in Bihar, even if we are unlikely to try this flour made of roasted grains and pulses. Probably nothing has done more for Telugu cooking than the hugely popular canteen that Andhra Bhavan operates in Delhi. Foodblogs, often run by nostalgic NRIs, have also helped: for example, onehotstove.blogspot.com run by Nupur in St.Louis, Missouri is a more attractively written source of information on Maharashtrian cooking than any book I’ve found. Finally, the booming cookbook market has made publishers eager for new concepts and titles. Penguin India led the way with its excellent regional cooking series (in particular, the books on Kodava and Northeastern cooking filled really interesting niches), and others have followed. Tarla Dalal, for example, having exhausted Gujarati food and weird vegetarian adaptations of foreign cuisines, has written a decent book on Rajasthani vegetarian food.
But in all this Oriya food has been missing. Oriyas are well known as cooks, but always in the kitchens of others. The state makes more headlines for malnutrition than for its food, and Naveen Patnaik must rightly be too busy tackling that (and learning Oriya) to promote paukhalo. The lack of efforts from expat Oriyas is more mystifying, but the only other Oriya cookbook I know of, Purba: Feasts from the East, is by New York-based Laxmi Parida. Could paukhalo work as a selling point — maybe in restaurants with rooms for a nap afterwards? Hota and Pattanaik clearly hope that health will be a selling point, but I think most cuisines, in the totality of their original forms ( i.e. no extra rich foods just because you can afford it now) are quite healthy. This health obsession might also have restricted the book: is this why the dishes cooked as prasadam in Orissa’s famous temples don’t feature? They may be healthy in the traditional Indian sense of using few spices and no onions or garlic, but might use too much ghee to pass muster with a nutritionist. Yet they are a vital part of the state’s food heritage and their lack leaves the book feeling incomplete.
Still, all writers write books for their own reasons and we must be grateful to Hota and Pattanaik for doing this much. With Healthy Oriya Cooking one gap in chronicling India’s regional foods is partly filled. There are other gaps I hope will soon be filled as well: the food of interior Maharashtra, or more generally, the Deccan; Bihar, despite Laloo’s efforts; the pahadi foods of Himachal and Uttaranchal; Bhopal, the one major Muslim city cuisine without a good cookbook; Karnataka needs more coverage, particularly communities like the Bunts. Can readers suggest other Indian cuisines that need their cookbooks?
Courtesy: Economic Times
My Oriya friend flipped through the copy of Healthy Oriya Cooking by Bijoylaxmi Hota and Kabita Pattanaik (Rupa Books), and sniffed. "How can an authentic Oriya cookbook not start with paukhalo?" he asked.
He was referring to the dish of lightly fermented rice which many Oriyas would insist is an essential part of an authentic Oriya meal — as is the nap that must follow thanks to the drowsiness induced by its mildly alcoholic nature. Bengalis call it panta-bhat and make it to use up extra rice, but on this matter at least, I think, Oriyas, so long forced to live be overshadowed by Bengalis, will resist attempts at appropriation. Paukhalo is emblematic of Oriya food, which is why friend was disdainful of any Oriya cookbook that didn’t start with it.
In defence of Hota and Pattanaik, they do give a recipe for it as pakhal (just not upfront), describing it as a summer food with several health benefits: "First it has a high cooling effect... Secondly fermented cereal protects the liver. Thirdly pakhal is full of yeast, which promotes healthier cell production." I am not sure how medically reliable their advice is, especially since later they make dubious assertions about the ability of coconut to inactivate viruses like measles, herpes and even HIV. But this sort of stuff is standard to many health books and can be ignored as one turns straight to the recipes.
And these are certainly very welcome. As our knowledge of Indian regional cuisines has developed, Oriya food has remained one of the biggest blank spots. Renowned anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, in his essay How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India (1988) even suggested gloomily that regionalisation accentuates this: "In the jostling of the various local and regional traditions for appreciation and mutual recognition, certain linguistic and regional traditions with greater access to urban resources, institutions, and media are pushing humbler neighbours out of the cosmopolitan view: Thus Telugu food is being progressively pushed out of sight by Tamil cuisine, Oriya by Bengali cuisine, Kannada by Marathi, Rajasthani by Gujarati, and Kashmiri by Punjabi."
Of late, this process has stopped, for several reasons. Greater prosperity moves people away from old eating habits, but also sets up a counter reaction making them aware of what they are losing. People may still not make traditional food regularly, but they will attempt to preserve them in cookbooks or on special occasions, like weddings, or at specialised restaurants. In some cases, even if a region’s food has not got recognition, the food of specific communities within it has: so Kannada food is still little known outside the state, but the food of Mangalore or of the Udipi Shettys has become well known. Sometimes a concept like Kashmir’s wazawan feast or Avadh’s dumpukht technique has become a useful way to sell those cuisines.
Politicians have also helped their home cuisines: thanks to Laloo we know how important sattu is in Bihar, even if we are unlikely to try this flour made of roasted grains and pulses. Probably nothing has done more for Telugu cooking than the hugely popular canteen that Andhra Bhavan operates in Delhi. Foodblogs, often run by nostalgic NRIs, have also helped: for example, onehotstove.blogspot.com run by Nupur in St.Louis, Missouri is a more attractively written source of information on Maharashtrian cooking than any book I’ve found. Finally, the booming cookbook market has made publishers eager for new concepts and titles. Penguin India led the way with its excellent regional cooking series (in particular, the books on Kodava and Northeastern cooking filled really interesting niches), and others have followed. Tarla Dalal, for example, having exhausted Gujarati food and weird vegetarian adaptations of foreign cuisines, has written a decent book on Rajasthani vegetarian food.
But in all this Oriya food has been missing. Oriyas are well known as cooks, but always in the kitchens of others. The state makes more headlines for malnutrition than for its food, and Naveen Patnaik must rightly be too busy tackling that (and learning Oriya) to promote paukhalo. The lack of efforts from expat Oriyas is more mystifying, but the only other Oriya cookbook I know of, Purba: Feasts from the East, is by New York-based Laxmi Parida. Could paukhalo work as a selling point — maybe in restaurants with rooms for a nap afterwards? Hota and Pattanaik clearly hope that health will be a selling point, but I think most cuisines, in the totality of their original forms ( i.e. no extra rich foods just because you can afford it now) are quite healthy. This health obsession might also have restricted the book: is this why the dishes cooked as prasadam in Orissa’s famous temples don’t feature? They may be healthy in the traditional Indian sense of using few spices and no onions or garlic, but might use too much ghee to pass muster with a nutritionist. Yet they are a vital part of the state’s food heritage and their lack leaves the book feeling incomplete.
Still, all writers write books for their own reasons and we must be grateful to Hota and Pattanaik for doing this much. With Healthy Oriya Cooking one gap in chronicling India’s regional foods is partly filled. There are other gaps I hope will soon be filled as well: the food of interior Maharashtra, or more generally, the Deccan; Bihar, despite Laloo’s efforts; the pahadi foods of Himachal and Uttaranchal; Bhopal, the one major Muslim city cuisine without a good cookbook; Karnataka needs more coverage, particularly communities like the Bunts. Can readers suggest other Indian cuisines that need their cookbooks?
Courtesy: Economic Times
The prose and the place
Most of us carry a little of the place that we have been to for a holiday in our daily lives. The hangover lasts for a few days and then it is back to the usual business of living. How do creative minds view their sojourns? Do they let the places spill over in their writings or their books? Do they see places as quick shots to boost their creativity and sponge them off like photographic plates to be exposed later while they write?
Read More
Read More
Jayakanthan's Novel in English
Last Friday, New Horizon Media, launched their English imprint, Indian Writings. It had published 4 new titles and 4 more are in the pipeline. Indian Writings focusses on translations of regional languages works in English. First four titles are translations of famous four novels from Tamil.
Today's Hindu carried a review of Jayakanthan's Love and Loss. Read it here.
Today's Hindu carried a review of Jayakanthan's Love and Loss. Read it here.
Thirumandiram in Malayalam
It all began with a love for Tamil language which gradually grew into a passion.
Five years after he came out with the Malayalam commentary of Tamil epic Thirukural, K G Chandrasekharan Nair has now completed the commentary and translation of yet another Tamil epic - Thirumantram.
The three-volume translation, to be published by DC Books, is all set to be released in August.
A visit to his house at Kundamankadavu turned a revealing journey as we are received by a father-daughter duo, both bound together by a common thread - a love for Tamil literature.
While Chandrasekharan Nair had brought out the commentary on Thirukural in 2002, daughter Shailaja Raveendran has translated the couplets in simple Malayalam, the pocket edition of which was brought out by DC Books last week.
At the house, we are greeted by books and more books. Among them are the three thickly-bound books, the translated volumes of Tamil epic Thirumantram. And even before we ask, Chandrasekheran Nair tells us what made him translate them. ‘‘It has in-depth meanings which Malayalis should not miss out. Many have translated it earlier but I wanted to earn an experience for myself, of having imbibed a great epic.’’
But Thirumantram, the devotional songs by Sidhar Thirumular, still remains largely ‘untouched’ in terms of translations.
‘‘This translation includes commentaries and references, and is called a bhashyam.’’ Chandrasekharan Nair seems a satisfied writer.
An employee with the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Department for 36 years, it was his settling down in the city after retirement and his acquaintance with the late poets Ayyappa Paniker and Guptan Nair that opened the doors of literature to him.
He is the brother-in-law of ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, a relation that he cherishes and carries with pride.
It was upon his insistence that Shailaja set out to translate Thirukural for the pocket edition. ‘‘If his translation is scholarly, mine is simple - for the common man,’’ she says.
Shailaja has translated the short stories of Tamil writer S Murugaiya (Chudar) and is now into yet another translation of a Tamil work - one of Kannadasan’s books on Hindu philosophy.
Shailaja marks out certain couplets from the translated Thirukural that are oft-repeated by President Kalam in his speeches. And they mean: ‘Those who have the courage to carry out their wishes as they dreamt will reach their goals as they wished.’ It is a similar dream that carries this father-daughter duo on a mission to make available to Malayalis some of the finest literary works in another language.
Courtesy: Newindpress
Five years after he came out with the Malayalam commentary of Tamil epic Thirukural, K G Chandrasekharan Nair has now completed the commentary and translation of yet another Tamil epic - Thirumantram.
The three-volume translation, to be published by DC Books, is all set to be released in August.
A visit to his house at Kundamankadavu turned a revealing journey as we are received by a father-daughter duo, both bound together by a common thread - a love for Tamil literature.
While Chandrasekharan Nair had brought out the commentary on Thirukural in 2002, daughter Shailaja Raveendran has translated the couplets in simple Malayalam, the pocket edition of which was brought out by DC Books last week.
At the house, we are greeted by books and more books. Among them are the three thickly-bound books, the translated volumes of Tamil epic Thirumantram. And even before we ask, Chandrasekheran Nair tells us what made him translate them. ‘‘It has in-depth meanings which Malayalis should not miss out. Many have translated it earlier but I wanted to earn an experience for myself, of having imbibed a great epic.’’
But Thirumantram, the devotional songs by Sidhar Thirumular, still remains largely ‘untouched’ in terms of translations.
‘‘This translation includes commentaries and references, and is called a bhashyam.’’ Chandrasekharan Nair seems a satisfied writer.
An employee with the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Department for 36 years, it was his settling down in the city after retirement and his acquaintance with the late poets Ayyappa Paniker and Guptan Nair that opened the doors of literature to him.
He is the brother-in-law of ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, a relation that he cherishes and carries with pride.
It was upon his insistence that Shailaja set out to translate Thirukural for the pocket edition. ‘‘If his translation is scholarly, mine is simple - for the common man,’’ she says.
Shailaja has translated the short stories of Tamil writer S Murugaiya (Chudar) and is now into yet another translation of a Tamil work - one of Kannadasan’s books on Hindu philosophy.
Shailaja marks out certain couplets from the translated Thirukural that are oft-repeated by President Kalam in his speeches. And they mean: ‘Those who have the courage to carry out their wishes as they dreamt will reach their goals as they wished.’ It is a similar dream that carries this father-daughter duo on a mission to make available to Malayalis some of the finest literary works in another language.
Courtesy: Newindpress
Saturday, June 2, 2007
A colony of writers
VIJAY NAIR
WRITERS lead a precarious existence. I find it easy to acknowledge that the Indian writing in English experiences this phenomenon more acutely. If I am not being attacked for my pretentiousness, I am being hounded for the grammar. I am often asked &# 8212; Why do you write in English?
It’s both easy and difficult to answer that one, simply because it is so loaded. Usually I make my escape by being pedantic. I mention my schooling that was primarily in English. At times I argue that such global times ensure English is an Indian language just like the “chicken tikka” is a British institution. Occasionally I take the more scholarly route of quoting Elliot.
No real answer
And yet the answer to the subtext always eludes in so far this question is asking me who I am loyal to. The Indian reader/ audience who astutely picks up my pretences or the foreign publisher who keeps the dream of a huge advance and a shot at the Booker alive for me? One would like me to be “Indian” in a framework that they have created for my writing. They prefer that I paint my canvas with their metaphors and their preoccupation with poverty, the caste system and the Kumbh Mela! The other detests me for the outsider mask I am compelled to wear and my pseudo concerns.
I experienced the underlying fascinating and destructive processes, sandwiched between this diverse set of patrons, when I participated in the Royal Court Theatre workshop for emerging playwrights. A theatre group in Mumbai organises this residential workshop in India. They are able to tap generous sponsorships from leading corporates for the residency as well as a festival of plays that is positioned as the grand finale. I had been in the audience when the first such theatre festival unfolded in Bangalore in 2002. However I took my time to decide. I decided to participate when a third set of workshops were announced in 2005.
Emerging markets
I was in an English university at that time as the writer in residence and getting interested in exchanges that happen between cultures. The mail that announced the workshop sought a sample script from interested playwrights. These scripts were to be evaluated to identify 12 “deserving” playwrights. My interest in the workshop was piqued because in the university that boasted of some of the leading names in contemporary British literary scene like Abdulrazzak Gurnah, Scarlett Thomas and Patience Ogabi, no one recommended the Royal Court. Clearly the days of “Beckettian” glory was over for the court. And like any other multinational it was seeking emerging markets.
I became a participant the following year. Only nine had made it through the stringent selection process. Three writers were last minute additions owing to a few drop-outs. The group had three Marathi playwrights and one Hindi playwright. The organisers had warned us in an email that a leading writer and director from the court were going to be the facilitators and we writers needed to keep our egos in check!
We met them in the space provided by a leading industrial group in their luxurious guest house for a fortnight. In the first week they mostly kept to themselves and communicated to us largely through the organisers. Questions were not encouraged. If a participant asked two questions on the same day the inevitable reprimand was “Have you read David Mamet?” It was difficult to answer that a few of us hadn’t thought it necessary to familiarise ourselves with the great man’s guidelines before venturing into playwriting.
The second week was more rewarding. There were one to one sessions with them and the exchange became more vibrant. It was evident that they had mastery in their craft and combined this expertise with insights on the writer and his writing. What unfolded in the workshop outside the sessions was equally remarkable. The dozen odd writers and the actors who had come down to help in the workshop bonded over games of “Uno”, drinking sessions and midnight dives into the pool.
We had all started writing furiously by then. The plan was that we finish the first draft of our plays in three months and one of the facilitators comes back to enable us to get them ready for the stage. However, we heard from the organisers that he had discovered other preoccupations at the last minute and they were to take on the mantle of facilitating the remaining process.
Headed downhill
It was all downhill from there. The organisers had their own views about our plays. They felt their primary responsibility was towards the sponsors. They did not want any play that may ruffle feathers and turned overbearing and strident whenever they encountered dissent. The lone Hindi playwright deserted the process after the second workshop.
Once the festival began, some of us discovered to our chagrin that the organisers, who had also doubled up as producers for some of the plays, had encouraged rewriting large chunks to cater to popular sentiments. Critics complained about the lack of depth and originality as there was more than one unacknowledged adaptation. Nothing remarkable emerged in the festival labelled “Writers Bloc,” apart from a moving treatise on Manipur by a first time playwright.
The aftermath was bloody. The stress of the badly handled workshop process started leaking out in petty squabbles. Battle lines were clearly drawn. The writers who had participated due to the generosity of the organisers felt those who were critical of the process read too much in the harmless failures. Others felt they had a more legitimate right to criticise because they had responded to an objective evaluation and had been invited.
The British had done it again. They had managed to divide us without seemingly being a part of the mess that followed after they left. And helped us identify the minefields that lie in the territory we would like to claim as our own.
Courtesy: The Hindu
WRITERS lead a precarious existence. I find it easy to acknowledge that the Indian writing in English experiences this phenomenon more acutely. If I am not being attacked for my pretentiousness, I am being hounded for the grammar. I am often asked &# 8212; Why do you write in English?
It’s both easy and difficult to answer that one, simply because it is so loaded. Usually I make my escape by being pedantic. I mention my schooling that was primarily in English. At times I argue that such global times ensure English is an Indian language just like the “chicken tikka” is a British institution. Occasionally I take the more scholarly route of quoting Elliot.
No real answer
And yet the answer to the subtext always eludes in so far this question is asking me who I am loyal to. The Indian reader/ audience who astutely picks up my pretences or the foreign publisher who keeps the dream of a huge advance and a shot at the Booker alive for me? One would like me to be “Indian” in a framework that they have created for my writing. They prefer that I paint my canvas with their metaphors and their preoccupation with poverty, the caste system and the Kumbh Mela! The other detests me for the outsider mask I am compelled to wear and my pseudo concerns.
I experienced the underlying fascinating and destructive processes, sandwiched between this diverse set of patrons, when I participated in the Royal Court Theatre workshop for emerging playwrights. A theatre group in Mumbai organises this residential workshop in India. They are able to tap generous sponsorships from leading corporates for the residency as well as a festival of plays that is positioned as the grand finale. I had been in the audience when the first such theatre festival unfolded in Bangalore in 2002. However I took my time to decide. I decided to participate when a third set of workshops were announced in 2005.
Emerging markets
I was in an English university at that time as the writer in residence and getting interested in exchanges that happen between cultures. The mail that announced the workshop sought a sample script from interested playwrights. These scripts were to be evaluated to identify 12 “deserving” playwrights. My interest in the workshop was piqued because in the university that boasted of some of the leading names in contemporary British literary scene like Abdulrazzak Gurnah, Scarlett Thomas and Patience Ogabi, no one recommended the Royal Court. Clearly the days of “Beckettian” glory was over for the court. And like any other multinational it was seeking emerging markets.
I became a participant the following year. Only nine had made it through the stringent selection process. Three writers were last minute additions owing to a few drop-outs. The group had three Marathi playwrights and one Hindi playwright. The organisers had warned us in an email that a leading writer and director from the court were going to be the facilitators and we writers needed to keep our egos in check!
We met them in the space provided by a leading industrial group in their luxurious guest house for a fortnight. In the first week they mostly kept to themselves and communicated to us largely through the organisers. Questions were not encouraged. If a participant asked two questions on the same day the inevitable reprimand was “Have you read David Mamet?” It was difficult to answer that a few of us hadn’t thought it necessary to familiarise ourselves with the great man’s guidelines before venturing into playwriting.
The second week was more rewarding. There were one to one sessions with them and the exchange became more vibrant. It was evident that they had mastery in their craft and combined this expertise with insights on the writer and his writing. What unfolded in the workshop outside the sessions was equally remarkable. The dozen odd writers and the actors who had come down to help in the workshop bonded over games of “Uno”, drinking sessions and midnight dives into the pool.
We had all started writing furiously by then. The plan was that we finish the first draft of our plays in three months and one of the facilitators comes back to enable us to get them ready for the stage. However, we heard from the organisers that he had discovered other preoccupations at the last minute and they were to take on the mantle of facilitating the remaining process.
Headed downhill
It was all downhill from there. The organisers had their own views about our plays. They felt their primary responsibility was towards the sponsors. They did not want any play that may ruffle feathers and turned overbearing and strident whenever they encountered dissent. The lone Hindi playwright deserted the process after the second workshop.
Once the festival began, some of us discovered to our chagrin that the organisers, who had also doubled up as producers for some of the plays, had encouraged rewriting large chunks to cater to popular sentiments. Critics complained about the lack of depth and originality as there was more than one unacknowledged adaptation. Nothing remarkable emerged in the festival labelled “Writers Bloc,” apart from a moving treatise on Manipur by a first time playwright.
The aftermath was bloody. The stress of the badly handled workshop process started leaking out in petty squabbles. Battle lines were clearly drawn. The writers who had participated due to the generosity of the organisers felt those who were critical of the process read too much in the harmless failures. Others felt they had a more legitimate right to criticise because they had responded to an objective evaluation and had been invited.
The British had done it again. They had managed to divide us without seemingly being a part of the mess that followed after they left. And helped us identify the minefields that lie in the territory we would like to claim as our own.
Courtesy: The Hindu
Looking for the great Indian novel
Nilanjana S Roy
Try this with your friends when you?re playing party games sometime. Ask them to name the twenty greatest European novelists, in no particular order.
These are some of the names that might come up: Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote), Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Jaroslav Hasek (The Good Soldier Svejk), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago), Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment) and a slew of other Russians. Some will name Sandor Marai (Embers), many will name Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum), or Ismail Kadare (The General of the Dead Army), or Orhan Pamuk (Snow). Some might reach further back into memory and stake a claim for writers like Victor Hugo (Les Miserables) or Stendhal (The Charterhouse of Parma) or Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time).
With the exception of writers from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, few of those on the list of great European writers will have had English as their first language. And yet, few readers will have not encountered Kundera or Camus, Tolstoy or Maupassant.
Kundera and Hasek are Czech writers, Marai is Hungarian, Kadare Albanian, Grass German, Cervantes Spanish, Hugo and Maupassant French. Except for the few of us who read across four or five European languages, most of us will have read their works in English. Ask any European, and she will tell you that all these languages have distinct and separate traditions: a Russian writer inhabits a different landscape from a Spanish writer, a Hungarian writer will not necessarily share the same sense of history as his Italian counterpart. But few would question the category of the European novel.
Now ask your friends to name the twenty greatest Indian novelists of the last two centuries. I tried this a few weeks ago with a group of people who were in general both far brighter and far better-read than me. All of us could name the small but growing pantheon of those who write in English, from Mulk Raj Anand to Kamala Markandeya, Nayantara Sahgal to Salman Rushdie, Pankaj Mishra to Amitav Ghosh. After that, the lists divided sharply on regional lines. Few of us could do more than name a handful of great names who wrote outside the comfort zone of the languages we were born to and spoke at home.
Collectively, we came up with a respectable list. To quote it in full would be tedious, but this might give you a rough sense of the size and capacity of the category we call Indian literature. It would include Saadat Hasan Manto?s short stories, the novels of Rabindranath Tagore and Sharatchandra, plays by Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar, stories by Ismat Chugtai, Qurrutulain Haider?s Aag ki Dariya, novels by C V Raman Pillai and short stories by Vaikom Mohammad Basheer, Srilal Shukla?s Raag Darbari, Rahi Masoom Raza?s A Village Dividied, Premchand?s entire oeuvre, Mahasweta Debi?s selected short stories, Ashapurna Debi?s work, U R Ananthamurthy?s writings. As you can see, this is by no means exhaustive or even more than mildly indicative, but even this brief list compares with the best of European writing.
What became sharply clear to me was the ?iceberg? quality of Indian literature. Even the best-read and most inquiring among us were constrained by language, and the availability of books in translation into English or other Indian languages. What I see of Marathi literature, for instance, is just the tip of the iceberg; what a Kannada author saw of Bengali literature was only a small sample of what has been published.
Canvassing bookstores over the next few weeks, I discovered that Indian literature in English translation can be very hard to find. Srilal Shukla?s classic Raag Darbari, a satire that should be on the required reading list of every politician and voter in the country, was unavailable in several bookstores, though I hear that a new translation will be out soon. U R Ananthamurthy?s Samskara was available in a few bookstores, but a friend who has read the original says that the translation is clunky, ungraceful and inadequate. There are some good translations out there, but they aren?t easy to find.
At the end of a fortnight, I had only six books on the list of the thirty essential Indian classics I?d compiled for a friend who is new to India and speaks none of the major Indian languages. All I could do was reiterate that the great Indian novel, like the great European novel, does exist. It?s just a far more elusive beast to corral.
Courtesy: Business-Standard
Try this with your friends when you?re playing party games sometime. Ask them to name the twenty greatest European novelists, in no particular order.
These are some of the names that might come up: Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote), Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Jaroslav Hasek (The Good Soldier Svejk), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago), Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment) and a slew of other Russians. Some will name Sandor Marai (Embers), many will name Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum), or Ismail Kadare (The General of the Dead Army), or Orhan Pamuk (Snow). Some might reach further back into memory and stake a claim for writers like Victor Hugo (Les Miserables) or Stendhal (The Charterhouse of Parma) or Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time).
With the exception of writers from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, few of those on the list of great European writers will have had English as their first language. And yet, few readers will have not encountered Kundera or Camus, Tolstoy or Maupassant.
Kundera and Hasek are Czech writers, Marai is Hungarian, Kadare Albanian, Grass German, Cervantes Spanish, Hugo and Maupassant French. Except for the few of us who read across four or five European languages, most of us will have read their works in English. Ask any European, and she will tell you that all these languages have distinct and separate traditions: a Russian writer inhabits a different landscape from a Spanish writer, a Hungarian writer will not necessarily share the same sense of history as his Italian counterpart. But few would question the category of the European novel.
Now ask your friends to name the twenty greatest Indian novelists of the last two centuries. I tried this a few weeks ago with a group of people who were in general both far brighter and far better-read than me. All of us could name the small but growing pantheon of those who write in English, from Mulk Raj Anand to Kamala Markandeya, Nayantara Sahgal to Salman Rushdie, Pankaj Mishra to Amitav Ghosh. After that, the lists divided sharply on regional lines. Few of us could do more than name a handful of great names who wrote outside the comfort zone of the languages we were born to and spoke at home.
Collectively, we came up with a respectable list. To quote it in full would be tedious, but this might give you a rough sense of the size and capacity of the category we call Indian literature. It would include Saadat Hasan Manto?s short stories, the novels of Rabindranath Tagore and Sharatchandra, plays by Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar, stories by Ismat Chugtai, Qurrutulain Haider?s Aag ki Dariya, novels by C V Raman Pillai and short stories by Vaikom Mohammad Basheer, Srilal Shukla?s Raag Darbari, Rahi Masoom Raza?s A Village Dividied, Premchand?s entire oeuvre, Mahasweta Debi?s selected short stories, Ashapurna Debi?s work, U R Ananthamurthy?s writings. As you can see, this is by no means exhaustive or even more than mildly indicative, but even this brief list compares with the best of European writing.
What became sharply clear to me was the ?iceberg? quality of Indian literature. Even the best-read and most inquiring among us were constrained by language, and the availability of books in translation into English or other Indian languages. What I see of Marathi literature, for instance, is just the tip of the iceberg; what a Kannada author saw of Bengali literature was only a small sample of what has been published.
Canvassing bookstores over the next few weeks, I discovered that Indian literature in English translation can be very hard to find. Srilal Shukla?s classic Raag Darbari, a satire that should be on the required reading list of every politician and voter in the country, was unavailable in several bookstores, though I hear that a new translation will be out soon. U R Ananthamurthy?s Samskara was available in a few bookstores, but a friend who has read the original says that the translation is clunky, ungraceful and inadequate. There are some good translations out there, but they aren?t easy to find.
At the end of a fortnight, I had only six books on the list of the thirty essential Indian classics I?d compiled for a friend who is new to India and speaks none of the major Indian languages. All I could do was reiterate that the great Indian novel, like the great European novel, does exist. It?s just a far more elusive beast to corral.
Courtesy: Business-Standard
Insider tales by outsiders
MIHIR BOSE
In VS Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness, a Sikh returns to India having lived many years abroad. When he arrives in Bombay, he sits down among his suitcases and begins to cry. “He had forgotten what Indian poverty was like,” writes Naipaul. “It is an Indian story, in its arrangement of figure and properties, its melodrama, its pathos.”
I have been reminded of this in recent weeks after my Bollywood — A History was published in India by Roli Books. Like the Sikh, I have felt like crying not because I have forgotten Indian poverty but because I had forgotten how very curious Indian critics can be, and how very different from British ones.
In a country whose culture is supposed to be gentle and non-violent, these critics can be vicious and malicious in a way no British critic would ever be. Of course, when you write a book you expect brickbats. That is part of the game and I believe you should not take part in the game if you are not prepared to accept it.
In 30 years of journalism I have written over 20 books, and while some have received rave reviews and even won prizes — my History of Indian Cricket was the first book by an Indian to win the prestigious English Cricket Society Literary Award — others have been panned.
Yet, in Britain there is always a balance. Even critics who do not like a particular book will make sure their criticism is not a rant. In India, there is no halfway house. The review is either a gushing piece or a hateful character assassination.
The reception of my history of Bollywood proves this. In Britain it has got very good reviews and even reviewers who found fault with some aspect of the book had overall praise for it. What is more, they all felt that a proper narrative history of Bollywood was long overdue.
In India, however, while there have been some very good reviews there have also been some exceptionally hostile ones. What makes some of these reviews extraordinary is that they seem to question my very right to pen a history of Bollywood, as if it is some sort of sacrilege and I have invaded some private, exclusive territory.
To me this seems to betray the fact that the Indian mind is still colonised. They cannot accept that Indian subjects may be of immense interest to the outside world.
In the past 30 years I have written five books of history and biography that have a specifically Indian theme. They have all come about as a result of a British publisher approaching me. They include a biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, a history of the Aga Khans, a social study of Indian cricket, Maidan View, a narrative history of Indian cricket, and now this history of Bollywood.
Some of these books have been published in India but their subjects first aroused the curiosity of English publishers, not Indian ones. I wrote the books because an English publisher approached me. The Indian publication is merely the reproduction of the English title.
This shows a curious split in the Indian literary world. Ever since Salman Rushdie’s great breakthrough with Midnight’s Children, Indians can make a fair claim to have colonised English fiction, having produced a stream of writers who dominate the genre. However, when it comes to non-fiction India has not moved on in quite that fashion.
It is an old truism that the first history of India was written by Alberuni, the scholar who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni’s invading forces. Since then, outsiders have recorded vast areas of Indian life more faithfully than Indians.
I always find it very instructive that the two most popular books that deal with how India won freedom are Freedom at Midnight, written jointly by a Frenchman and an American — Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, and Liberty or Death, by the Englishman Patrick French.
It is as if Indians feel their history is so awful they better turn away and concentrate on a form of higher history, namely fiction.
This gap in non-fiction is now being splendidly filled by a new generation of English writers led by William Dalrymple.
Not that there are no Indian writers writing good non-fiction. Abhraham Eraly’s history of the Mughals is a splendid example. Ramachandra Guha has just written a fascinating history of India since 1947.
And there are many fine particular studies of different aspects of Indian life. But the sort of history common in the West — the broad historical narrative, the biographies of leading personalities — these are not that common. Indeed, Guha in his book complains how his research had to struggle because there were no biographies of many of the leading politicians of the past 60 years. But even when Indians like Guha write non-fiction their approach is very different from that of a Western non-fiction writer.
There are two aspects of Guha’s India After Gandhi that are very revealing. The first is Guha’s reluctance to discuss the personal life of the politicians he is writing about. So he does not say Nehru had an affair with Lady Mountbatten but writes: “With both delicacy and truth, (Lady Mountbatten) can be referred to his closest lady friend.”
I cannot imagine a British historian being so coy. This is all the more significant as this means Guha does not explore the point made by Nirad Chaudhuri that Nehru was much influenced on certain policy matters by the lady’s husband, Lord Mountbatten, in particular over the disastrous policy towards China.
The other very glaring thing about Guha’s book is that while he has done massive research, and unearthed fascinating nuggets of information, it is all based on material from books or archives. He has not carried out any interviews, although many of the figures he writes about are still alive.
Contrast this with Peter Hennessy’s Having It so Good, a history of Britain in the 50s. Hennessy in his acknowledgements writes, “I have benefited from a host of communications, written, visual, sonic and oral, for the decade.” Hennessy may have overdone the interviews but they are essential to his book.
Guha feels you cannot write a proper history of an event unless 30 years have elapsed. This is what many governments do: archives do not release documents until after 30 years. So the final section of his book, which deals with India since the 1990s, is called not history but “historically informed journalism”. Not many British writers would accept such a distinction.
What this indicates is that what may be called popular history — history written by non-historians like me — has not developed in India. In the West this is a thriving business. One of the greatest exponents of this was David Halberstam, the American writer who was tragically killed not long ago in a car accident in California. I was an accountancy student in London when I came across Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest, a study of how the Kennedy and Johnson administrations got into the Vietnam war. I consider it one of the finest history books I have read. Halberstam, who had been a New York Times reporter in Vietnam in the 1960s, interviewed the leading personalities associated with the war and produced a masterpiece that stands the test of time.
In India, the wall between academic historians and popular historians — “historically informed journalism”, to borrow Guha’s phrase — seems as strong as the old Hindu divide between the higher castes and untouchables.
Such histories are all the more important because unlike the West there is a dearth of primary source materials here, as I have found when writing about Indian historical subjects, and again with Bollywood. Often the best material on India is to be found in Western libraries. You do need to talk to as many people as possible to discover what exactly happened.
Indian historians have a horror of oral testimony. They need to overcome that if they are to prevent the foreigner, let alone a hated nri like me, to dominate the non-fiction genre.
Bose is Sports Editor, BBC, and author, most recently, of Bollywood — A History
In VS Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness, a Sikh returns to India having lived many years abroad. When he arrives in Bombay, he sits down among his suitcases and begins to cry. “He had forgotten what Indian poverty was like,” writes Naipaul. “It is an Indian story, in its arrangement of figure and properties, its melodrama, its pathos.”
I have been reminded of this in recent weeks after my Bollywood — A History was published in India by Roli Books. Like the Sikh, I have felt like crying not because I have forgotten Indian poverty but because I had forgotten how very curious Indian critics can be, and how very different from British ones.
In a country whose culture is supposed to be gentle and non-violent, these critics can be vicious and malicious in a way no British critic would ever be. Of course, when you write a book you expect brickbats. That is part of the game and I believe you should not take part in the game if you are not prepared to accept it.
In 30 years of journalism I have written over 20 books, and while some have received rave reviews and even won prizes — my History of Indian Cricket was the first book by an Indian to win the prestigious English Cricket Society Literary Award — others have been panned.
Yet, in Britain there is always a balance. Even critics who do not like a particular book will make sure their criticism is not a rant. In India, there is no halfway house. The review is either a gushing piece or a hateful character assassination.
The reception of my history of Bollywood proves this. In Britain it has got very good reviews and even reviewers who found fault with some aspect of the book had overall praise for it. What is more, they all felt that a proper narrative history of Bollywood was long overdue.
In India, however, while there have been some very good reviews there have also been some exceptionally hostile ones. What makes some of these reviews extraordinary is that they seem to question my very right to pen a history of Bollywood, as if it is some sort of sacrilege and I have invaded some private, exclusive territory.
To me this seems to betray the fact that the Indian mind is still colonised. They cannot accept that Indian subjects may be of immense interest to the outside world.
In the past 30 years I have written five books of history and biography that have a specifically Indian theme. They have all come about as a result of a British publisher approaching me. They include a biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, a history of the Aga Khans, a social study of Indian cricket, Maidan View, a narrative history of Indian cricket, and now this history of Bollywood.
Some of these books have been published in India but their subjects first aroused the curiosity of English publishers, not Indian ones. I wrote the books because an English publisher approached me. The Indian publication is merely the reproduction of the English title.
This shows a curious split in the Indian literary world. Ever since Salman Rushdie’s great breakthrough with Midnight’s Children, Indians can make a fair claim to have colonised English fiction, having produced a stream of writers who dominate the genre. However, when it comes to non-fiction India has not moved on in quite that fashion.
It is an old truism that the first history of India was written by Alberuni, the scholar who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni’s invading forces. Since then, outsiders have recorded vast areas of Indian life more faithfully than Indians.
I always find it very instructive that the two most popular books that deal with how India won freedom are Freedom at Midnight, written jointly by a Frenchman and an American — Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, and Liberty or Death, by the Englishman Patrick French.
It is as if Indians feel their history is so awful they better turn away and concentrate on a form of higher history, namely fiction.
This gap in non-fiction is now being splendidly filled by a new generation of English writers led by William Dalrymple.
Not that there are no Indian writers writing good non-fiction. Abhraham Eraly’s history of the Mughals is a splendid example. Ramachandra Guha has just written a fascinating history of India since 1947.
And there are many fine particular studies of different aspects of Indian life. But the sort of history common in the West — the broad historical narrative, the biographies of leading personalities — these are not that common. Indeed, Guha in his book complains how his research had to struggle because there were no biographies of many of the leading politicians of the past 60 years. But even when Indians like Guha write non-fiction their approach is very different from that of a Western non-fiction writer.
There are two aspects of Guha’s India After Gandhi that are very revealing. The first is Guha’s reluctance to discuss the personal life of the politicians he is writing about. So he does not say Nehru had an affair with Lady Mountbatten but writes: “With both delicacy and truth, (Lady Mountbatten) can be referred to his closest lady friend.”
I cannot imagine a British historian being so coy. This is all the more significant as this means Guha does not explore the point made by Nirad Chaudhuri that Nehru was much influenced on certain policy matters by the lady’s husband, Lord Mountbatten, in particular over the disastrous policy towards China.
The other very glaring thing about Guha’s book is that while he has done massive research, and unearthed fascinating nuggets of information, it is all based on material from books or archives. He has not carried out any interviews, although many of the figures he writes about are still alive.
Contrast this with Peter Hennessy’s Having It so Good, a history of Britain in the 50s. Hennessy in his acknowledgements writes, “I have benefited from a host of communications, written, visual, sonic and oral, for the decade.” Hennessy may have overdone the interviews but they are essential to his book.
Guha feels you cannot write a proper history of an event unless 30 years have elapsed. This is what many governments do: archives do not release documents until after 30 years. So the final section of his book, which deals with India since the 1990s, is called not history but “historically informed journalism”. Not many British writers would accept such a distinction.
What this indicates is that what may be called popular history — history written by non-historians like me — has not developed in India. In the West this is a thriving business. One of the greatest exponents of this was David Halberstam, the American writer who was tragically killed not long ago in a car accident in California. I was an accountancy student in London when I came across Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest, a study of how the Kennedy and Johnson administrations got into the Vietnam war. I consider it one of the finest history books I have read. Halberstam, who had been a New York Times reporter in Vietnam in the 1960s, interviewed the leading personalities associated with the war and produced a masterpiece that stands the test of time.
In India, the wall between academic historians and popular historians — “historically informed journalism”, to borrow Guha’s phrase — seems as strong as the old Hindu divide between the higher castes and untouchables.
Such histories are all the more important because unlike the West there is a dearth of primary source materials here, as I have found when writing about Indian historical subjects, and again with Bollywood. Often the best material on India is to be found in Western libraries. You do need to talk to as many people as possible to discover what exactly happened.
Indian historians have a horror of oral testimony. They need to overcome that if they are to prevent the foreigner, let alone a hated nri like me, to dominate the non-fiction genre.
Bose is Sports Editor, BBC, and author, most recently, of Bollywood — A History
'A writer's first audience...'
"I just got off the auto rickshaw on MG Road and bumped into a student I used to jam with," smiles Amitabha Bagchi. While he enjoys playing the drums, he can't quite relate to the heavy metal music that Gen Now plays. "I used to listen to Aerosmith a lot in the 1990s. Now it's west African pop, jazz and qawaalis . And yes for old time's sake, I do listen to Neil Young and Led Zeppelin ," says Amitabha.
Jamming with students aside, Amitabha draws inspiration from these real life characters for his writing. "I've noticed that there are two categories of students - the good and the no good. And when people realise that you are good, there is the weight of expectation from your family and friends. Along the way, you internalise these expectations and keep striving to do better," says Amitabha who, after a rigorous spell of talent search exams, an engineering degree and a post doc came back to work as an assistant professor at IIT. And perhaps this is also why his characters are based on real people he's known and met along the way. "But the main plots in my story are fictional ," he adds.
If a writer draws inspiration from books, then Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyaa's Pather Panchali and William Saroyan's An Armenian Trilogy are Amitabha's idea of stories well told.
"Although there are a lot of other things going around, reading is still a core activity. And each book you read influences you differently . As an author, my job is to write and there is a mixed response to my writing . Some find it relevant or interesting and others may not relate to it at all," says Amitabha.
And does an Indian writing in English appeal to an international audience? "Yes, more so now than earlier . Then, writers used to talk a great deal about spinning the language the Indian way. Today, writers don't talk about it, they just do it. But always, a writer's first audience must be his or her own people, then his writing can also be appreciated across cultures. Like Siddhartha Deb and Chetan Bhagat writing for international audiences," says Amitabha.
What about Bangalore? "Bangaloreans are very stylish. And you can't expect weather like this in May in Delhi. You can fry eggs on the roof back home now."
For the future, Amitabha plans more writing. "It'll be very different from my first book," he smiles.
Jamming with students aside, Amitabha draws inspiration from these real life characters for his writing. "I've noticed that there are two categories of students - the good and the no good. And when people realise that you are good, there is the weight of expectation from your family and friends. Along the way, you internalise these expectations and keep striving to do better," says Amitabha who, after a rigorous spell of talent search exams, an engineering degree and a post doc came back to work as an assistant professor at IIT. And perhaps this is also why his characters are based on real people he's known and met along the way. "But the main plots in my story are fictional ," he adds.
If a writer draws inspiration from books, then Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyaa's Pather Panchali and William Saroyan's An Armenian Trilogy are Amitabha's idea of stories well told.
"Although there are a lot of other things going around, reading is still a core activity. And each book you read influences you differently . As an author, my job is to write and there is a mixed response to my writing . Some find it relevant or interesting and others may not relate to it at all," says Amitabha.
And does an Indian writing in English appeal to an international audience? "Yes, more so now than earlier . Then, writers used to talk a great deal about spinning the language the Indian way. Today, writers don't talk about it, they just do it. But always, a writer's first audience must be his or her own people, then his writing can also be appreciated across cultures. Like Siddhartha Deb and Chetan Bhagat writing for international audiences," says Amitabha.
What about Bangalore? "Bangaloreans are very stylish. And you can't expect weather like this in May in Delhi. You can fry eggs on the roof back home now."
For the future, Amitabha plans more writing. "It'll be very different from my first book," he smiles.
Books, a click away
A reason to rejoice for book-lovers, especially children as Katha Publishers have launched the 'Katha Book Club'. This is the first time that an NGO would be operating a book club. The proceeds will be given to Kathashala, its school, and 57 other communities in Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh, where 1,300 slum children would benefit.
The books will cater mainly to schoolchildren, since the summer vacations are on, besides teachers, professionals and housewives. Till now, Katha's books were mainly sold to literary societies and institutions but with the book club, Katha's books would now be available to individuals and children as well. The club will introduce Indian authors to children, offering something more than Harry Potter, and also create space for regional literature. Also, children may interact with each other online, and subsequently, develop skills such as expression, creative writing and critical thinking.
"We are not only promoting reading, but also introducing Indian authors and creating space for regional literature through their stories. We get children to interact with each other, share, and discuss what they have read to inculcate reading habits in them," said Vaishali Mathur, editor-in-charge, children's books.
According to Lubna Haq, Katha marketing strategist, "We want to bring the joy of reading directly to people's homes."
The book club will have an initial five-year membership fee of Rs 500. A member will get Rs 10 credit points for every Rs 100 of reading pleasure they buy. These credit points can be redeemed on the next purchase or kept for future purchases. They will also receive an online newsletter of Katha's latest releases and events including storytelling and puppetry. Also, they will receive a coupon to buy the Katha book of the month at a 30% discount.
And for every member you enrol for them, you receive credit points of Rs 100.
For membership, mail to directmarketing@katha.org
The books will cater mainly to schoolchildren, since the summer vacations are on, besides teachers, professionals and housewives. Till now, Katha's books were mainly sold to literary societies and institutions but with the book club, Katha's books would now be available to individuals and children as well. The club will introduce Indian authors to children, offering something more than Harry Potter, and also create space for regional literature. Also, children may interact with each other online, and subsequently, develop skills such as expression, creative writing and critical thinking.
"We are not only promoting reading, but also introducing Indian authors and creating space for regional literature through their stories. We get children to interact with each other, share, and discuss what they have read to inculcate reading habits in them," said Vaishali Mathur, editor-in-charge, children's books.
According to Lubna Haq, Katha marketing strategist, "We want to bring the joy of reading directly to people's homes."
The book club will have an initial five-year membership fee of Rs 500. A member will get Rs 10 credit points for every Rs 100 of reading pleasure they buy. These credit points can be redeemed on the next purchase or kept for future purchases. They will also receive an online newsletter of Katha's latest releases and events including storytelling and puppetry. Also, they will receive a coupon to buy the Katha book of the month at a 30% discount.
And for every member you enrol for them, you receive credit points of Rs 100.
For membership, mail to directmarketing@katha.org
Auctioneer Osian’s set to launch publishing firm, literary agency
Rajeshwari Sharma
As Indian authors write their way to international best-sellers’ lists, the country’s leading archive and auction house Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Pvt. Ltd plans to launch a publishing and design firm as well as a literary agency.
The moves, scheduled to be announced on Friday, reflects a growing interest in managing talent in a country where writers have historically dealt directly with publishers.
“The whole practice of literary agenting has just started,” says Renuka Chatterjee, senior vice president of Osian’s planned literary agency. “We realized that the time is right for a professional literary agency given the ever-increasing interest in Indian writing and the way publishing in India has grown from strength to strength,” she adds.
There have been attempts before on this front. Jacaranda Press has been operating as a literary agency and consulting company since 1997, while Anuj Bahri of book retailer, Bahri & Sons, has been doubling as a bookseller and literary agent for more than a year.
Meanwhile, many recent blockbusters that have won literary acclaim and financial success—Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, for instance—have been authored by Indians resident abroad, who worked with agents in New York and London.
Indeed, in a recent interview with Mint, Desai’s agent David Godwin had said that he hoped to set up an India office. Godwin was also agent to Desai’s fellow Booker Award winner, Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things. Sophie Hoult, a spokeswoman for David Godwin Associates, said on Wednesday that nothing was imminent.
India’s English trade books market represents Rs800-1,200 crore in sales every year. The last few years have seen some headline-grabbing advance payments—Raj Kamal Jha’s world rights to The Blue Bedspread to Picador were sold at £160,000 (Rs1.28 crore).
Observers, however, say that the book business within India still does not make it financially attractive to have an organized literary agency model.
Indian agents typically charge between 5% and 15% commission compared with the standard 15% in the West.
“Unlike the West, where an adult book goes for an average of say £5-6, or Rs400-480, in India it typically sells for anything between Rs150-250,” says Thomas Abraham, chief executive officer and president of Penguin Books India. “Can an agent in India sustain herself by merely being a literary agent?” he asks.
Indeed, many Indian writers, such as the best-selling Shobaa De, have no literary agent; De does have overseas agents, including Frauke Jung-Lindemann, who controls the German rights for her books.
Osian’s publishing arm will focus on books about arts, culture, cinema and philosophy. The literary agency will operate separately and acquire writers of fiction and non-fiction, Chatterjee explains.
Publishers say literary agents can add significant value to the writers they represent as well as to their publishers. For Indian writers, they might help garner overseas rights.“Foreign publishing houses do not even look at manuscripts unless they come through agents. The Indian publishing industry is different in this respect, since authors can, and do approach publishing houses directly,” says Jayapriya Vasudevan, director of Jacaranda Press in Bangalore. Jacaranda has been working with authors such as Shashi Warrier, Anita Nair, Aditi De and Tushar Gandhi.
Agents assess manuscripts, pitch them, review contracts and help manage schedules for writing, editing, proofing and release. They not only bring value to both the writer and the publisher, but also help weed out manuscripts that don’t make the grade, notes Bahri, adding, “It is not an easy task for a publishing house to read through some 500-odd manuscripts that reaches its desk each month.”
For now, publishers feel the role of agents in India will be limited to talent scouting and selling world rights. “There is a high output of quality writing generating from India and the country will remain a prime ground for new literary discoveries,” says Abraham. “It would take a long time before agents in India start wielding power like in the West.”
Courtesy: Livemint.com
As Indian authors write their way to international best-sellers’ lists, the country’s leading archive and auction house Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Pvt. Ltd plans to launch a publishing and design firm as well as a literary agency.
The moves, scheduled to be announced on Friday, reflects a growing interest in managing talent in a country where writers have historically dealt directly with publishers.
“The whole practice of literary agenting has just started,” says Renuka Chatterjee, senior vice president of Osian’s planned literary agency. “We realized that the time is right for a professional literary agency given the ever-increasing interest in Indian writing and the way publishing in India has grown from strength to strength,” she adds.
There have been attempts before on this front. Jacaranda Press has been operating as a literary agency and consulting company since 1997, while Anuj Bahri of book retailer, Bahri & Sons, has been doubling as a bookseller and literary agent for more than a year.
Meanwhile, many recent blockbusters that have won literary acclaim and financial success—Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, for instance—have been authored by Indians resident abroad, who worked with agents in New York and London.
Indeed, in a recent interview with Mint, Desai’s agent David Godwin had said that he hoped to set up an India office. Godwin was also agent to Desai’s fellow Booker Award winner, Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things. Sophie Hoult, a spokeswoman for David Godwin Associates, said on Wednesday that nothing was imminent.
India’s English trade books market represents Rs800-1,200 crore in sales every year. The last few years have seen some headline-grabbing advance payments—Raj Kamal Jha’s world rights to The Blue Bedspread to Picador were sold at £160,000 (Rs1.28 crore).
Observers, however, say that the book business within India still does not make it financially attractive to have an organized literary agency model.
Indian agents typically charge between 5% and 15% commission compared with the standard 15% in the West.
“Unlike the West, where an adult book goes for an average of say £5-6, or Rs400-480, in India it typically sells for anything between Rs150-250,” says Thomas Abraham, chief executive officer and president of Penguin Books India. “Can an agent in India sustain herself by merely being a literary agent?” he asks.
Indeed, many Indian writers, such as the best-selling Shobaa De, have no literary agent; De does have overseas agents, including Frauke Jung-Lindemann, who controls the German rights for her books.
Osian’s publishing arm will focus on books about arts, culture, cinema and philosophy. The literary agency will operate separately and acquire writers of fiction and non-fiction, Chatterjee explains.
Publishers say literary agents can add significant value to the writers they represent as well as to their publishers. For Indian writers, they might help garner overseas rights.“Foreign publishing houses do not even look at manuscripts unless they come through agents. The Indian publishing industry is different in this respect, since authors can, and do approach publishing houses directly,” says Jayapriya Vasudevan, director of Jacaranda Press in Bangalore. Jacaranda has been working with authors such as Shashi Warrier, Anita Nair, Aditi De and Tushar Gandhi.
Agents assess manuscripts, pitch them, review contracts and help manage schedules for writing, editing, proofing and release. They not only bring value to both the writer and the publisher, but also help weed out manuscripts that don’t make the grade, notes Bahri, adding, “It is not an easy task for a publishing house to read through some 500-odd manuscripts that reaches its desk each month.”
For now, publishers feel the role of agents in India will be limited to talent scouting and selling world rights. “There is a high output of quality writing generating from India and the country will remain a prime ground for new literary discoveries,” says Abraham. “It would take a long time before agents in India start wielding power like in the West.”
Courtesy: Livemint.com
Chidambaram Releases TERI books on environment management and CSR practices
TERI is released two books at the 6th TERI Corporate Award Function, held in New Delhi . The Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, presided over the event and released the two books on the occasion – each of which deals with exemplary case studies of environment management and social practices by organizations in India.
With its rich insights into the implementation of effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) within organizations, Citizens at Work is a must-read for business managers, development experts, management practitioners, corporate sector specialists, consultants, and business management students. It offers insights into the most effective and successful CSR programmes launched by Indian corporations.
The cases featured in the book encompass integrated socio-economic development of rural communities; capacity building, employment and education of the youth; empowering citizens; developing and providing support for the mentally and physically challenged; unique micro finance programme for the poorer sections of society; and IT-based interventions for rural India.
Cleaner is cheaper: case studies of corporate environmental excellence is a compendium of business cases highlighting the best environmental practices in Indian industry. Each of the write-ups in the book demonstrates the ‘first-ever’ in the industry and deal with various examples of process improvement, waste and water management, resource conservation and environmental management. The objective of both these books is to provide viable solutions to the industry in the form of replicable models and state-of-the art technologies and practices.
With its rich insights into the implementation of effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) within organizations, Citizens at Work is a must-read for business managers, development experts, management practitioners, corporate sector specialists, consultants, and business management students. It offers insights into the most effective and successful CSR programmes launched by Indian corporations.
The cases featured in the book encompass integrated socio-economic development of rural communities; capacity building, employment and education of the youth; empowering citizens; developing and providing support for the mentally and physically challenged; unique micro finance programme for the poorer sections of society; and IT-based interventions for rural India.
Cleaner is cheaper: case studies of corporate environmental excellence is a compendium of business cases highlighting the best environmental practices in Indian industry. Each of the write-ups in the book demonstrates the ‘first-ever’ in the industry and deal with various examples of process improvement, waste and water management, resource conservation and environmental management. The objective of both these books is to provide viable solutions to the industry in the form of replicable models and state-of-the art technologies and practices.
Global award to boost Dalit cause, says Indian publisher
An Indian publishing house specializing in caste inequalities and identity politics says a prestigious award it has won will help generate support for the country's oppressed communities.
Most unexpectedly, the British Council's prestigious International Publisher of the Year Award was awarded in London to S. Anand's publishing house Navayana.
Anand told IANS: 'I think the award will help mobilise international opinion on the caste question which India has always said is its internal matter.'
The 33-year-old owner of Chennai-based Navayana received the coveted prize at an International Publisher of the Year - awards ceremony at the London Book Fair last month.
Selected by a five-member panel of judges from a shortlist of finalists representing small-to-medium-sized publishers from Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa and Syria, Anand got 7,500 pounds as prize money and a free stand at the London Book Fair 2008.
'I do not see the IYPY award as a recognition of my work as an individual because Navayana's work reflects the anxieties and concerns of the anti-caste movement and the Dalit movement in India,' he said.
'One of the major concerns of the Dalit movement has been to internationalise the issue of caste discrimination and to get the global community to recognise caste discrimination as equal to racial discrimination and other forms of xenophobia.
'In India, we recently witnessed the ugly sight of privileged caste students sweeping the roads and polishing shoes as a form of protest against reservation. In no other country will we witness such vulgar protests, egged by the media, against a policy that seeks to usher in social equality in society,' he added.
Navayana says it seeks to restore sanity in such a society. Its latest book is Kancha Ilaiah's 'Turing the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times'.
'This richly illustrated work seeks to engage children with the issue of caste discrimination. Illustrated by Durgabai Vyam, a Gond adivasi artist, the book is very topical given the heat generated over the issue of reservation. Being the first children's book in India to inculcate dignity of labour and an anti-caste perspective among children, this title is a major pedagogical intervention,' explained Anand.
Anand looks forward to returning to the London Book Fair in 2008.
'It will offer an important platform to internationalise caste discrimination and help form a coalition with like-minded players in the British publishing industry. This award is an important step for us and gives a small publisher like us the opportunity to think big,' he said.
Founded in 2003, Navayana has sought to fill a serious gap in the Indian publishing market.
Inspired by the ideals of B.R. Ambedkar - an icon of the anti-caste movement in India - Anand has committed himself to selling books that critically engage with the issue of caste despite distribution and retail bias.
In 2005, along with seven other publishers, Anand established the Independent Publishers Distribution Alternatives, demonstrating that in a deeply conservative market, publishing for social change can also be profitable.
Courtesy: Sujoy Dhar, IANS
Most unexpectedly, the British Council's prestigious International Publisher of the Year Award was awarded in London to S. Anand's publishing house Navayana.
Anand told IANS: 'I think the award will help mobilise international opinion on the caste question which India has always said is its internal matter.'
The 33-year-old owner of Chennai-based Navayana received the coveted prize at an International Publisher of the Year - awards ceremony at the London Book Fair last month.
Selected by a five-member panel of judges from a shortlist of finalists representing small-to-medium-sized publishers from Argentina, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa and Syria, Anand got 7,500 pounds as prize money and a free stand at the London Book Fair 2008.
'I do not see the IYPY award as a recognition of my work as an individual because Navayana's work reflects the anxieties and concerns of the anti-caste movement and the Dalit movement in India,' he said.
'One of the major concerns of the Dalit movement has been to internationalise the issue of caste discrimination and to get the global community to recognise caste discrimination as equal to racial discrimination and other forms of xenophobia.
'In India, we recently witnessed the ugly sight of privileged caste students sweeping the roads and polishing shoes as a form of protest against reservation. In no other country will we witness such vulgar protests, egged by the media, against a policy that seeks to usher in social equality in society,' he added.
Navayana says it seeks to restore sanity in such a society. Its latest book is Kancha Ilaiah's 'Turing the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times'.
'This richly illustrated work seeks to engage children with the issue of caste discrimination. Illustrated by Durgabai Vyam, a Gond adivasi artist, the book is very topical given the heat generated over the issue of reservation. Being the first children's book in India to inculcate dignity of labour and an anti-caste perspective among children, this title is a major pedagogical intervention,' explained Anand.
Anand looks forward to returning to the London Book Fair in 2008.
'It will offer an important platform to internationalise caste discrimination and help form a coalition with like-minded players in the British publishing industry. This award is an important step for us and gives a small publisher like us the opportunity to think big,' he said.
Founded in 2003, Navayana has sought to fill a serious gap in the Indian publishing market.
Inspired by the ideals of B.R. Ambedkar - an icon of the anti-caste movement in India - Anand has committed himself to selling books that critically engage with the issue of caste despite distribution and retail bias.
In 2005, along with seven other publishers, Anand established the Independent Publishers Distribution Alternatives, demonstrating that in a deeply conservative market, publishing for social change can also be profitable.
Courtesy: Sujoy Dhar, IANS
The Revenues from Indian Publishing Offshoring Are Slated to Grow
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c57342) has announced the addition of "Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical - An Update" to their offering.
The revenues from Indian publishing offshoring are slated to grow from $440 million in 2006 to reach $1.46 billion in 2010. There were an estimated 26,000 employees in this space in 2006 and this number will grow to 74,000 by 2010. The report "Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical - An Update - focuses on the three key segments: STM/Academic, Educational and Legal publishing that form a bulk of offshoring to India.
A vast majority, or 96% of the India-based vendors have capabilities to service the STM/Academic publishing segment. About 56% and 39% of the vendors have the capability to handle educational publishing and legal publishing respectively. The range of offshored services includes: Editorial, Data (operations), Design, Training and IT. Each of these has achieved varying levels of offshoring maturity, which is analyzed in detail in the report. In the Indian offshoring space, the strongest capability is within the Operations space, followed by Editorial services.
There are over 100 vendors in the publishing offshoring space and we have identified a minimum of 28 credible vendors, which fall within the scope of the study. These vendors have been categorized into clusters (between 1 to 5) and analyzed based on their services, focus, positioning and strategies. Cluster 1, 2 and 3 together account for over 80% of the total employment in the publishing offshoring space in India.
Based on our exhaustive primary research and analysis of this sector, we have identified a "list of frontrunners", that have the highest potential to emerge as winners within their chosen niches. This is on account of strong capabilities, onshore and offshore presence, well-defined growth strategies and execution capabilities, brand and financial strengths. Included in this list (across all clusters) are SPi, OfficeTiger, Aptara (formerly TechBooks), Macmillan India, Newgen, Integra, Infomedia India, Premedia Global, Q2A Solutions and CyberMedia Services. We believe these will be among the most exciting companies in the medium term.
This report: "Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical: An Update" provides an in-depth information and analysis of the Indian vendor space along with vendor profiles of all major and upcoming players in the STM/Academic, Educational and Legal Publishing segments.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the Indian vendor space along with profiles of all major industry players. The report is designed to help:
- Publishers looking to outsource/offshore
- Publishing BPOs to assess their competitive environment
- American and European Publishers looking for Indian partners
- Outsourcing consultants evaluate and compare the offerings of Indian vendors
- Researchers and others looking for detailed information on Publishing outsourcing
The report is based on secondary data as well as extensive interviews with key people at various publishing outsourcing companies in India. Publishing houses will find it invaluable in understanding the capabilities of Indian vendors, and selecting the best fit.
Companies Mentioned:
- Alden Prepress
- Aptara
- Techbooks
- Cybermedia Services
- Datapage
- Diacritech
- Digital Publishing Solutions
- Dps, Hurix
- IBH
- Infomedia
- Innodata Isogen
- Integra Software Services
- Integreon
- Knowledge Works Global
- Kwg, Lapis Digital
- Laserwords
- Lason India
- Macmillan
- Mizpah Publishing
- Newgen Imaging
- Office Tiger
- Olympus
- Premedia Global
- Q2A
- Qpro Infotech
- SPI Technologies
- SPS
- SR Nova
- Thomson Digital
- Tnq
- Blackwell Publishing
- Butterworth Heinemann
- CRC Press
- Elsevier
- Forbes
- American Heritage
- Greenwood Publishing
- Harvard University Press
- Houghton Mifflin
- IEEE
- John Wiley
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Mcgraw-Hill
- Nature Publishing Group
- Oxford University Press
- Pearson Education
- Prentice Hall
- Proquest
- Reed Elsevier
- Springer
- Taylor & Francis
- Harcourt Education
- Harpercollins
- The Watts Publishing Group
- Scholastic
- Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
- Mayer
- Brown
- Rowe & Maw LLP
- Smithsonian
- Wolters Kluwer
- Netherlands Business Legislation
- The International Encyclopedia of Laws
For more information, visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c57342
The revenues from Indian publishing offshoring are slated to grow from $440 million in 2006 to reach $1.46 billion in 2010. There were an estimated 26,000 employees in this space in 2006 and this number will grow to 74,000 by 2010. The report "Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical - An Update - focuses on the three key segments: STM/Academic, Educational and Legal publishing that form a bulk of offshoring to India.
A vast majority, or 96% of the India-based vendors have capabilities to service the STM/Academic publishing segment. About 56% and 39% of the vendors have the capability to handle educational publishing and legal publishing respectively. The range of offshored services includes: Editorial, Data (operations), Design, Training and IT. Each of these has achieved varying levels of offshoring maturity, which is analyzed in detail in the report. In the Indian offshoring space, the strongest capability is within the Operations space, followed by Editorial services.
There are over 100 vendors in the publishing offshoring space and we have identified a minimum of 28 credible vendors, which fall within the scope of the study. These vendors have been categorized into clusters (between 1 to 5) and analyzed based on their services, focus, positioning and strategies. Cluster 1, 2 and 3 together account for over 80% of the total employment in the publishing offshoring space in India.
Based on our exhaustive primary research and analysis of this sector, we have identified a "list of frontrunners", that have the highest potential to emerge as winners within their chosen niches. This is on account of strong capabilities, onshore and offshore presence, well-defined growth strategies and execution capabilities, brand and financial strengths. Included in this list (across all clusters) are SPi, OfficeTiger, Aptara (formerly TechBooks), Macmillan India, Newgen, Integra, Infomedia India, Premedia Global, Q2A Solutions and CyberMedia Services. We believe these will be among the most exciting companies in the medium term.
This report: "Offshoring in the Publishing Vertical: An Update" provides an in-depth information and analysis of the Indian vendor space along with vendor profiles of all major and upcoming players in the STM/Academic, Educational and Legal Publishing segments.
The report provides an in-depth analysis of the Indian vendor space along with profiles of all major industry players. The report is designed to help:
- Publishers looking to outsource/offshore
- Publishing BPOs to assess their competitive environment
- American and European Publishers looking for Indian partners
- Outsourcing consultants evaluate and compare the offerings of Indian vendors
- Researchers and others looking for detailed information on Publishing outsourcing
The report is based on secondary data as well as extensive interviews with key people at various publishing outsourcing companies in India. Publishing houses will find it invaluable in understanding the capabilities of Indian vendors, and selecting the best fit.
Companies Mentioned:
- Alden Prepress
- Aptara
- Techbooks
- Cybermedia Services
- Datapage
- Diacritech
- Digital Publishing Solutions
- Dps, Hurix
- IBH
- Infomedia
- Innodata Isogen
- Integra Software Services
- Integreon
- Knowledge Works Global
- Kwg, Lapis Digital
- Laserwords
- Lason India
- Macmillan
- Mizpah Publishing
- Newgen Imaging
- Office Tiger
- Olympus
- Premedia Global
- Q2A
- Qpro Infotech
- SPI Technologies
- SPS
- SR Nova
- Thomson Digital
- Tnq
- Blackwell Publishing
- Butterworth Heinemann
- CRC Press
- Elsevier
- Forbes
- American Heritage
- Greenwood Publishing
- Harvard University Press
- Houghton Mifflin
- IEEE
- John Wiley
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Mcgraw-Hill
- Nature Publishing Group
- Oxford University Press
- Pearson Education
- Prentice Hall
- Proquest
- Reed Elsevier
- Springer
- Taylor & Francis
- Harcourt Education
- Harpercollins
- The Watts Publishing Group
- Scholastic
- Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
- Mayer
- Brown
- Rowe & Maw LLP
- Smithsonian
- Wolters Kluwer
- Netherlands Business Legislation
- The International Encyclopedia of Laws
For more information, visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c57342
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