New Delhi, March 22
The Indian publishing
industry is keeping the written word alive in different formats but the
gradual decline in readership is posing many challenges for the
industry. To reinvigorate this complex relationship, one of India's
leading publishers says the trick lies in making readers fall in love
with the solitary act of reading - something most Indians are literally
scared of.
"An Indian is scared to be alone. So let's say my wife
goes away for a holiday, the first thing I would do is call up my
friends and ask them to join me for dinner. This attitude is because we
don't want to give time to ourselves. Even when we have nothing to do,
we will not pick up a book, but watch television instead," Ashok Chopra,
chief executive of Hay House Publishers India, told IANS in an
interview.
"We are not a nation of book lovers. We would rather
spend Rs.5,000 on a pair of shoes, but not Rs. 500 on a book. It is a
sad reflection of the society and a hard fact of life," he added.
This
strong sociological observation about the reading habits of Indians
explains why they have failed to cultivate reading as a hobby despite a
rich legacy of writers like RabindranathTagore or Premchand to boast
about.
And coming straight from the man who has spent many
decades in publishing lends an air of credibility as Chopra, unlike
others, doesn't attribute the decline in readership to the massive
technological advancements that have taken place.
Instead, the
Delhi-based publisher advised publishing firms to keep pace with
changing technology to reach out to larger audiences and increase their
footprint in India's heartland.
"Every 10 years, tastes change,
mindsets change and the whole value system changes. So, reading habits
invariably change. I would say e-books are the future as many youngsters
are reading on Kindle. It is just a few old people like me... who are
like fossils and want to feel the books," said Chopra who began his
career as a journalist.
Chopra then shifted to the world of
publishing and since then his resume boasts of work experience at
prominent publishing houses like Vikas, Macmillan India and
HarperCollins.
Adding another feather to his cap is his new book,
"A Scrapbook of Memories"(HarperCollins, Rs. 699) that offers
fascinating glimpses of his professional life and the publishing
industry in general.
Described as a memoir, the 416-page book is
an encyclopedia of the world of publishing, where Chopra has gone down
memory lane to pick out many memorable stories, including a few
disappointments, some astonishment, everlasting friendships and complex
working relationships.
It is a world Chopra shares with his
readers by narrating stories of acquiring manuscripts, of several
gambles that failed to mature into concrete deals and of the
satisfaction for not burning his fingers in a failing project.
Chopra
is honest while narrating each story. Without hiding facts, he has
recollected countless moments that would stay in the mind for a while
and might often come back when you see the book on the shelf.
In
Dev Anand's chapter, Chopra candidly admits how he has not forgiven
himself for losing the veteran actor's autobiography "Romancing with
Life" by not bidding for it, given the fact he had been pursuing the
actor to pen down one.
A similar shade of disappointment reflects
in the Satish Gujral chapter in which Chopra elaborates on how he lost
out on the book "A Brush with Life: An Autobiography" to another
publisher because the artist had decided this would be so.
Perhaps
the most shocking chapter is on Bollywood actor I.S. Johar, whose
manuscript in those times failed to find any takers because of its
explicit content, as Chopra puts it ".... it was like a blue film on
paper - enjoyable for the first few minutes or so, sick after that".
Stories
like these make the read interesting as they give an idea of power
struggle, ego tussles and network building that form the bedrock of the
publishing business. Chopra has woven the narrative in delicate thread
that perfectly paints the picture.
As a hardworking and astute
leader, he worked on this book for two years and 11 months, referred to
his personal notes and revisited the places he has mentioned to be as
true to the actual situation as possible.
Strangely, the man who
has a vision for the publishing industry still writes in long form and
the original draft of this book was 900 pages long. After ruthless
editing, Chopra managed to bring it to 400 pages by deleting chapters on
piracy and plagiarism, Javed Akhtar and Amrita Pritam, among others.
"I
have written the story as I felt it. I didn't write it for any
particular audience or readers. I wrote it the way I saw things
happening in my professional life," Chopra said.
"I didn't even know I could write. Somewhere along the line, I felt I had a story that needed to be told," he concluded.
(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at [email protected])
