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Nina Varghese

Chennai , Jan. 10

In the highly competitive world of book publishing, Tara Publishing has taken the path less trodden. This Chennai-based publishing house has carved a niche for itself with its handcrafted books, Indian themes and graphics.

In September 2006, the Tara title One, Two, Three was nominated as the Picture Book of the Month by the Academy for Children's and Youth Literature, Germany. Honourable mention was made of other titles including the The London Jungle Book and The Legend of the Fish at the Independent Publisher Awards.

Says Ms Gita Wolf, Publisher, Tara Publishing, "Our business model is different. We have kept the business small and creative.'' The company's claim that it'sunafraid of conventional market logic has been substantiated by its selection of writers and titles.

Writers like Samhita Arni, the 12-year-old who wrote The Mahabharatha-A Child's View which sold 20,000 copies, have gone on to win international acclaim.

Though the company started out as a children's publisher, the range today extends to various genres. The books are printed on specially manufactured paper from the Aurobindo Handmade Paper Unit in Puducherry. The paper is usually made from a mixture of cotton cloth waste and tree bark, rice husk or grass. Each page of every book is screen printed individually by hand, which means that each sheet is an original print. Ms Wolf said Tara Publishing partners with publishing houses and museums worldwide including a specially commissioned line for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The hand-made books have won several international awards including Outstanding Book of the Year at the Independent Publisher Awards in the US and the first prize at the American Association of Museum Publications Awards. Tara Publishing's first taste of international honour came early in 1996, with the Alcuin Citation for Excellence in Book Design, Canada for The Very Hungry Lion.

The latest offering from Tara Publishing is stationery and notebooks.

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