The Hindu Business Line : World’s new bazaar for books

On an afternoon, with nothing to do as has become the norm, one walked into an air-conditioned bookshop on Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road for relief from the heat. “Do you have Gandhi’s Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita,” asked a middle-aged man to a young attendant. “No Sir, we have Lokmanya Tilak’s Commentaries on the Gita and one is as good as the other,” the attendant replied without trying to be smart.

The middle-aged customer did not take offence as the attendant was more right than wrong; he just smiled saying, “I run a small library in the housing society where I come from. Two half-blind old women, living alone in their apartments, requested me to get the book for the library. In fact, they were prepared to pay for the book though I do not understand how they will read the book.”

The attendant, polite as Jeeves of Wodehouse lineage and probably as well read, stood and watched. “The best place to get the book is on the Net. Anything and everything you want today is available on the Net. The Net is the world’s new bazaar and probably as fickle and as incomplete; or ask the ladies to attend the Gita lectures, saints and seers advertise in newspapers,” one felt like adding but did not butt in.

One realised that one was no more a journalist. The middle-aged individual walked away murmuring, “I thought you will have the book. I feel bad disappointing the two ladies.” As the gentleman went out, one remembered a journalist friend who has made an English translation of the Gita with his own comments.

One day he walked into the office, presented me a copy and told me he belonged to a religious society set up by a sanyasin. “My lady Guru knows everything; she can predict the future,” he gushed before coming up with a request, “Please can you arrange a review of my book. I mean just go through it.” One did not feel competent enough to review the book and sold it to a raddiwala. Possibly, one could have helped the customer with a signed copy of my friend’s tome. (The last time, one met him, he has become a punter on the stock exchanges and was near to attaining moksha as money is moksha and moksha is money, to mimic Keats.).

Till Narasimha Rao pushed for economic reforms in the 1990s, sages and seers spent some years in the forests near the Himalayas (going by their claims) before entering corporate boardrooms to make up for the lost time. Their books, mainly some weird sightings, were stocked by popular bookshops in Mumbai though one was never sure whether they sold or not.

With forests not to be seen anywhere near or away from the Himalayas, sages and seers have seemingly plonked themselves in corporate boardrooms to attain moksha or nirvana — the ultimate selfish state a human being can attain or aspire for. This writer strongly believes newsmakers should cultivate this section of elevated individuals more than brokers and merchant bankers to get boardroom scoops. It is common belief this holy breed attend board meetings of companies as invited guests and get the members into a trance before okaying unnatural resolutions.

But my friend tells me, it is hard to get near the sages being strongly ringed by public relations officers, who perform the first screening. “Once in, you are like Abhimanyu. Stuck,” cautioned my friend who is familiar with the modern ways of India’s corporate world and corporate journalism. Then came the IT companies led by Infosys and the public craved for IT books on programming apart from speeches on about everything by the chief executives of these companies.

Young journalists still rush to hear them on everything from nirvana to the US nuclear deal and come out of halls exclaiming “Cool. These folks have made it.” One may note here the palpable admiration in the financial community for Narayana Murthy of Infosys though this writer prefers the writings of his wife, Sudha Murthy, being easy on one’s bald head. Today, it is no more IT, maybe because of the sub-prime crisis in the US, a financial event (akin to 20x20 cricket) one has not been able to get one’s mind on. But as my friends Kurup and Shaji tell me, it is the best reason for shunning the US and globalisation. “There is no merit in globalisation. I will never believe anything about the US,” said Kurup decisively, while Shaji elaborated on “corporate doom” when one met them recently.

There is a bookshop opposite the heritage V.T. station with its complicated design. One has stared and stared at the rather confusing structure, more like the novels of yore with a single sentence running to at least 500 or more words. The reader has to move back and forth and still not understand. Young girls and boys were all over the bookshop with most checking out books on financial derivatives, 9 per cent Chidambaram growth (a superior version of the 3 per cent Hindu rate of growth) and Chidambaram’s collected economic writings. None cared to touch the book by Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor.

Quite a few seemed to be preparing for the entrance exams to management courses. “Are yaar, ye financial derivative kya hota hai (What is a financial derivative, yaar),” asked a young lady to her boyfriend who came back, “Humko kya maloom hai (What do I know).” The lady was put off and hit back, “Thera baap dhanda karta hai na. Kya unko maloom nahin hai (Your father is into business. Does he not know).”

As usual, the fellow gave up probably because he knew his father did not know anything about financial derivatives. One saw him select a book by some foreign author on financial derivatives, checked out the price and paid for it. “Ye, Bapu ke liye hai (This is for my father),” he told his girl friend.

One realised a businessman has been taken for a financial spin by a smooth-talking banker. Maybe, it comes free with globalisation and the US visas.

P. Devarajan

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World’s new bazaar for books