"Do you have a Rakhi gift for me?"
"Yes, a book,"replies the young boy.
" A book?" asks the sister with a grim expression and suddenly her eyes light up when she realises the gift pack actually has chocolates inside. Hmm, so what the creative copywriter is trying to say is books are boring, are they?
Now move over to an ad of ' teach yourself English' CD. This guy actually has the audacity to literally throw away books and choose the CD because one CD can replace a whole encyclopaedia in book form. Hmm, stuff for another P.I.L, is it?
The first thing to suffer when the government has a resource-crunch — books of course!
The first thing corporates decide to deduct their budgets from in recession — you guessed it, books!
And finally, the first thing newspapers ensure vanishes from their pages during meltdowns — book reviews, what else!
The Times of India, India's leading newspaper, has no space for books in the main paper, not even in their Hindi version. The only little space they have is for spiritual books, that too is actually sublet to their sister concern Indiatimes. Now, these poor fellas apparently have something that the whole world is ailing from — a resource crunch and to beat that, they have started selling that space. Thankfully, no self-respecting publisher wants to get into a frivolous arrangement, so what do you have? All kinds of strange books being showcased in India's flagship newspaper. But who is the sufferer? Books and book lovers!
Hindustan Times, the other print biggie recently shifted the book reviews to Saturdays, ( from the leisurely Sundays) a bit of a letdown, but they still give it a whole page. May Goddess Saraswati bless them!
I would be failing in my duty if i were not to mention the messiah of writers, book lovers and publishers — The Hindu. They have stood by their values undeterred — recession or no-recession. May both Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi bless them!
And for rest of the above, may Ganesha bestow them with some good sense. Amen!
4 comments:
Every time when i see that chocolate ad i really wonder, why no one has ever protest against it?! And about the Times of India- it is good for every other use than the reading it...Earlier it used have space for top ten fiction and non fiction even that has gone! No book review at all...Hindu is the only paper which has sp.litterary suppliment on every first Sunday of the month and every Tuesday full pg of book reviews...
Its recession time- books are good on in book shops only...Books on recession will do well- and best seller would be - How to make profit in the Time of Recession.
And-
I think we have split soul- you wrote this post when i was talking about this...Amazing.
When you write Shobit, it hits straight in the face, and sometimes gives words to what others have been thinking.
I was alarmed when very recently I learnt that in my teenager daughter's group of friends, accessories and perfumes are preferred gift items over books. Fortunately, my daughter loves reading so enjoys receiving and giving books but the trend in general is not very healthy.
Having said that, I do believe in the process of evolution. Phases come and go. Book lovers will be book lovers and if they want books, they will get them. Besides, they will continue to guide their children to books, too. Let us not have our faith in the overall process falter. It gets tough at times for those in the trade but this too will pass as I don't think there is any medium that can substitue books for long.
(Easier said than done, is it? I agree! )
Sigh! Imagine what children's publishers are up against!
Hi Shobit....My name is Sujata..and we share a common friend Sujoyita Ghosh. She is a friend and my ex neighbour. I came to know about you through her. Though earlier while trying to find a publisher for my first fiction I had approached your office also. So a big coincidence happened when Sujoyita mentioned you. Any ways great going. You are doing a wonderful job. Keep it up. And stay connected. Cheers!
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