The Hindu Business Line : Reading between the fairs

Mumbai in January-February... 'tis the perfect time for gluttons whose hunger can be satiated only by books, lovely books. This time of the year the city virtually overflows with books and book fairs.

After spending four hours at the MIBF (Mumbai International Book Fair), I left on leaden feet for another fair. What better joy than browsing through books and talking to other passionate readers?

Like who? Like Dr Nilufer Bharucha, author and Head of the Department of English Literature at the University of Mumbai and Dr Anita Rane, Head of the Department of Ancient Indian Culture, St Xavier's College, regulars at book fairs.

For suburbanites, the book fair at Assam Bhavan near Vashi station in Navi Mumbai is ideal. A 50 per cent discount is available on many of the one lakh-plus books on management, fashion and textile design, interiors, architecture and photography. In downtown Mumbai, the book fair organised by Ashish Book Centre at the Sunderbai Hall offered a massive 85 per cent discount on arts and crafts, computers, history and science. It was promptly followed by a legendary book fest: the Strand Festival organised by Strand Bookstall.

Happily Strand-ed

The little shop takes its name from the cinema hall in whose foyer it was started in November, 1948 by 20-year-old T.N. Shanbag with a capital of Rs 450. At 21, he sold Churchill's War Memoirs Vol. 1 to the chief of Standard Vacuum Oil Company (now ESSO) Richard Burton. Fancy sharing a name with a Welsh actor and the 19th century English traveller and author responsible for the first complete translation of the Arabian Nights. The little shop round the corner from the major arterial PM Road came later.

Strand was among the earliest bookstores that gave a minimum 20 per cent discount on all books. The Strand Fair is a must visit as is the fifth annual MIBF, which was inaugurated at the Grand Hyatt Exhibition grounds at Santa Cruz by Arun Sadhu, novelist, former Editor of The Free Press Journal and newly appointed head of a prestigious Marathi literary Akademi.

"The grand response from booklovers to the 4th Mumbai International Book Fair, held under the auspices of Mumbai Festival 2006, encouraged us to once again present a feast of books," said Sanjeev Agarwal, founding trustee of the Good Governance India Foundation (GGIF), which is dedicated to the promotion of literacy and reading as a habit. GGIF is a co-organiser of MIBF in association with the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Associations of India and Fairfest Media Ltd, which has been organising exhibitions and trade fairs in India for the past 15 years backed by offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Big Indian book bazaar

Why does Fairfest do what it does? Because India is one of the 10 biggest book-publishing centres in the world and the third, after the US and the UK, as far as the number of English titles is concerned. Mumbai is India's biggest market for all kinds of books.

On display at the MIBF were general interest books, text-books, fiction and non-fiction, cuisine, children's books, computer books, encyclopaedias and reference books, magazines, periodicals and newspapers, business and management books, travel books, globes (there was a stall dedicated exclusively to maps), educational aids, multimedia CD Roms, audio/video tapes and so on. Every stall, bar none, was offering discounts starting from 10 per cent and peaking at 85 per cent.

The first MIBF was held at the World Trade Centre in swish Cuffe Parade; this year's edition housed more than 75 exhibitors, including participants from Iran (House of Culture) and the US (the American Information Resource Centre a.k.a. the American Library, an integral part of the US Consulate General's Public Affairs Section). The two stalls were located opposite each other and the attendant staff got along fabulously. Nnow, if only Bush and Ahmadinejad did likewise!

Books on poetry and art were the biggest draw at the Iranian stall; the AIRC stall had some informative fliers, leaflets and brochures. No books, but visitors could avail themselves of a discounted membership (Rs 500 for two years; during the rest of the year, the library charges an annual fee of Rs 400 with free Internet usage thrown in). Roli Books was missing, but the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Associations of India, The Indian Express, CNBC, the National Book Trust, the Government of India's Printing Department had stalls as did the little-known Centre for Cultural Resources & Training, which turned out to be a big hit with the visiting librarians and teachers for its educational material. Though Sunday recorded 5,000 visitors, the first two days of MIBF had some 3,000 footfalls, down by a good 2,000 registered at last year's fair (which also partnered with the Mumbai Festival) at Bandra. A stall displaying engineering tomes had a forlorn look.

A book for everyone

"It's possible there are fewer visitors on account of the distance," said a representative of JAICO publishing, which specialises in self-help books and spirituality. His stall sold books worth Rs 14,000. "It's good when people buy books; I would like them first and foremost to browse the myriad books we have," said Sanjay Menon of Aureole Publishing, an independent publisher, packager and distributor of books primarily for children, but also on art and architecture, food and cooking, history and archaeology, home and lifestyle, mythology and religion.

Aureole is an exclusive stock-holding agent of Grandreams, an imprint of Robert Fredrick Ltd, UK; and Parragon, the internationally renowned publisher of visual books; as well as the Caramel, Frances Lincoln, Kingfisher, Trident Press International and Worth Press Editions. Aureole's own publishing is rapidly growing. A clutch of 10 books in the children's reference segment, cased with full colour photos at reasonable prices, are popular with buyers.

The MIBF is the perfect platform for the launch of the paperback edition of Strangers in my Sleeper — Rail Journey and Encounters in the Indian Sub-continent by Peter Riordan, a New Zealand and Australian journalist whose first book, Motorcycle Masala, won the City of Brisbane/Singapore Airlines Prize for Asia-Pacific travel writing. New titles (activity books, picture books, reference and treasuries, and story books are in the offing. A few examples include History of Islamic Art and Achitecture (special price: £20), History of America, History of Jewish Civilization, History of Military History.

"Many of the books at this fair are expensive," complained Danny Fernandes, accompanied by his 21-year-old daughter. Father and daughter did not leave empty-handed; they bought several literary classics at affordable prices. "We are here to buy books for our library," said the principal of a Ghatkopar school, browsing through NBT's rock-bottom priced books, with her Head Teacher and Librarian. "The boys are enthusiastic about adventure stories, the girls prefer Enid Blyton and the really small ones like Amar Chitra Katha. Although our library is fairly well stocked, we want to enhance it with a greater variety of books."

The most prolific author showcased at MIBF though could well be L. Ron Hubbard, the (controversial) founder of the Church of Scientology whose members include Hollywood stars John Travolta and Tom Cruise. The stall was stocked with a fairly large collection of his books published by New Era Publications and Blue Bird Publications, which recently brought out the Marathi translation of The Technology of Study after its translation into Bengali and Hindi. The Marathi book was released by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi the day before MIBF opened. Part of a series of 19, the book has chapters on `How to achieve goals and targets', `Skills of Communication' and other life skills.

Guinness World Records recognised Hubbard as the world's most translated author (65 languages, which exceeds the previous record of 51 languages set in 1997 by American author Sidney Sheldon). With international sales approaching 40 million, there are plans for Hubbard's books to be translated into various other Indian languages, says Thomas Goeldenitz of the Denmark-headquartered New Era Publications.

Before talking to him though, I took the "stress test" offered to all visitors at the stall. It took all of two minutes and we laughed when the electropsychometer's needle swung at my response. I have ways of dealing with stress, I tell him: Prayer, music, a joke and a good book to read.

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