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sitanshi talati-parikh

sitanshi talati-parikh

Tag Archives: Books

The Art of Stillness

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Books

Published: VerveMagazine.in February 2015

The Read The Art of Stillness – Adventures In Going Nowhere
Author Pico Iyer
Publisher TED Books

The back story Iyer’s father called him a “pseudoretiree” when he left his Manhattan job for the backstreets of Kyoto. And it was. according to him, the best move he ever made. Says Iyer in the book: ‘I couldn’t blame him; all the institutions of higher skepticism to which he’d so generously sent me had insisted that the point of life was to get somewhere in the world, not to go nowhere. But the nowhere I was interested in had more corners and dimensions than I could possibly express to him (or myself), and somehow seemed larger and more unfathomable than the endlessly diverting life I had known in the city….’

Iyer’s book is a way to snap into the reality of the world you are inevitably sucked into, and a simple solution to finding your peace while living in it, without having to move geographically: ‘Sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it….’ 

What we loved It hits the pulse of what’s missing for people swamped with technology today. It resonates deeply and it’s evocative and moving words in their sheer simplicity ring true long after you have put it away. So you can’t actually put it away. As TED books likes to put it, these are “small books, big ideas,” and as a quick read with reverberating depth, it really works. 

What else? You want more of Iyer’s writing. 

More take-aways

‘More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.’

‘…not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury, nowadays it is often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize.’

‘Heaven is the place where you think of nowhere else.’

‘Our (writers) job is to turn through stillness, a life of movement into art. Sitting still is our workplace, sometimes our battlefield.’

‘As with any love affair, the early days of a romance with stillness give little sign of the hard work to come.’

‘You don’t get over shadows inside you simply by walking away from them.’

‘The one thing that technology doesn’t provide us with is a sense of how to make the best use of technology.’

Faces of Venice

06 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Brand Watch, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Art, Books, Interviews: Luxury Brands, Interviews: Travel, Louis Vuitton, Venice

Published: Vervemagazine.in, June 2014

What do staged photographs and manga comic strips have in common? Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia presents an exhibit of more than 30 sketches and 25 photographs in a curated exhibit, Sguardi Incrociati a Venezia, starting today. Take a look….

Venice by Mariano Fortuny (below)

Venice by Mariano Fortuny Venice by Mariano Fortuny

Louis Vuitton Travel Book Venice 2014, Jiro Taniguchi (below)

Louis Vuitton Travel Book Venice 2014, Jiro Taniguchi Louis Vuitton Travel Book Venice 2014, Jiro Taniguchi

When art, fashion, travel and photography come together, it is always promising – and this one is a cracker of a combination. Japanese Manga artist, Jirô Taniguchi’s new works come on display next to the late painter, set designer and photographer, Mariano Fortuny’s photographs; with the two offering striking views on Venice.

The exhibition Sguardi Incrociati a Venezia, curated by art historian and author Adrien Goetz, displays more than 30 sketches, made by Jirô Taniguchi with 25 photographs by Mariano Fortuny held in the reserve collection of the Palazzo Fortuny, together with films and books, after meticulous restoration work (funded by Louis Vuitton as part of its partnership with the Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia).

The exhibit also launches the Louis Vuitton Venice Travel Book, designed by Jirô Taniguchi. The Louis Vuitton Travel Book collection attempts to embark upon “real and virtual voyages, enriched by intellectual stimulation and poignant moments”, filled with illustrations by artists that describe their own personal journeys.

The Sguardi Incrociati a Venezia Exhibition begins today, June 6, 2014 and lasts until November 18, 2014 at Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia, Calle del Ridotto 1353, 30124 Venezia. There is no entry charge; timings are 10.00 am to 7.30 pm.

The Mistress of Words

15 Thursday May 2014

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Interviews (All), Interviews: The Arts, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Anuja Chauhan, Books, The Rose Code, Verve Magazine

Published: Verve Magazine, May 2014
Photograph by Manpreet Singh

She is as vibrant as her novels, and as sharp as her characters. Anuja Chauhan remains unaffected at the best of times

Anuja Chauhan Verve MAgazine

“I identify with every character I write, not just the girls. The heroes, the villains, the sleazy people. They’re all culled from people I know, have observed and am fond of.”

It is as if 43-year-old Anuja Chauhan has come of age early, while retaining a level of humour, innocence and vivacity about her, with her trademark witticism. Growing up, she thought being a Rajput and an army kid was the best thing in the world to be. “It was a big part of my identity and thinking. It still is, though I now realise there is a difference between being foolhardy and being brave, and that in an increasingly shrinking world, the concepts of ‘country’ and ‘nationality’ are rather overrated.”

She ended up in advertising after she read a book her husband (then boyfriend) gave her. Finding it interesting, she did the rounds of the Delhi agencies and took some copy tests. “Getting a job as a copywriter is the easiest thing in the world. Keeping
that job is another thing entirely!” She worked in the ad agency, JWT India, for over 17 years, eventually becoming vice president and executive creative director, before resigning in 2010 to pursue a full-time literary career. Over the years she worked with brands like Pepsi, Kurkure, Mountain Dew and Nokia, creating Pepsi’s Nothing official about it campaign and advertising slogans such as Pepsi’s Yeh Dil Maange More and Oye Bubbly, and Darr ke Aagey Jeet Hai for Mountain Dew. She believes that the biggest milestone for her was growing up, learning teamwork, mentoring and learning to listen.

Now she’s the best-selling author of three literary fiction novels. “Copywriting
is telling somebody else’s story. Essentially, I felt like I wanted to stretch out and write my own stories.” She started writing her first novel, The Zoya Factor, in her spare time while still working. The novel was originally optioned for a film by Red Chillies Entertainment and then resold to Pooja Shetty Deora’s Walkwater Films. The film rights to her second novel, The Battle for Bittora, are with Anil Kapoor Film Company, as she herself moves into writing screenplays for cinema. “Again, it happened very naturally. Filmmakers approached me for the movie rights
to my books – so I sold them, and then people who I couldn’t sell them to, said, ‘Write us a screenplay instead’. So I wrote. But again, it’s a collaborative process. Writing books is still the best thing. You have total control there.”

Married to television presenter and producer, Niret Alva, with three children, Anuja Chauhan has a full life. “Well, the babies are all personal milestones. Their births, the times they’ve done well, the times they’ve gotten ill. Those are the times one grows as a person, learns patience, discipline and humility and gets spiritual.” Her wish for the future is simple: “I just want my children to be healthy and happy and self-sufficient. And I want to spend quality time with my husband.”

Her style quotient consists of three things: comfort, colour and individuality. “My mum had this one jadau sone-ka-haar, which got cut up into four pieces as all her daughters wanted it. I love my bit of it.” Dressing up is wearing a sari. “Or simple clothes and big earrings and lashings of kohl and lipstick.” Inspirations are “all the
people I meet and the conversations I overhear (shamelessly!)” and success is nothing more or less than “peace of mind”.

The ‘John Grishams’ of Banking

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Books, Indian Fiction, Reviews, Trend, Verve Magazine

Published: Nerve Books-Trend, Verve Magazine, August 2013

While John Grisham turned from criminal lawyer to legal thriller novelist, our local boys are also finding dramatic success in writing. What makes the finance geeks and diplomats turn into vivid storytellers?

Image

A banker friend looks enviously at my job description and makes a comment about how much fun it all seems to be. There’s some talk about doing something because you love doing it, not because of the money. Ahem. Who needs money, today, right? With inflation, it’s so easy to live on air, water and ink. And then an email pops into my inbox, informing me that the ‘John Grisham of Banking’ is out with a new book. Ravi Subramanian, winner of the Economist-Crossword award for The Incredible Banker is going to be jumping headlong into financial scams, university intrigue and politics, all of which will lead to murder. Subramanian is an alumus of IIM-Bangalore and a banker by profession. Sounds familiar? The often impudently positioned Chetan Bhagat comes to mind. He brought the IIM-havens into our homes, making us feel one with his world particularly through his clever non-language. Bhagat, for those unfamiliar with India’s educator-of-the-masses, is an investment banker hailing from IIM-Ahmedabad. He quit his career to become a full-time bestseller writer. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world.

And there’s the case of Shiva taking on the avatar of Lakshmi! The brainchild of an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta, Amish Tripathi’s The Shiva Trilogy has broken records in terms of book sales, becoming the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1.7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales. His books have been known to displace Bhagat’s on bookshelves. It’s surprising there hasn’t been any mass uprising against that. Forbes India has ranked him #85 in the 2012 Celebrity 100 list, while Dharma Productions has optioned the movie rights to his book, The Immortals of Meluha.

Vikas Swarup, from the Indian Foreign Services (IFS), and currently Consul General of India in Osaka-Kobe, Japan, has found an alternative career in writing to go with his day job. For those unfamiliar with Swarup’s name, he’s the mastermind behind Slumdog Millionaire – in its original novel form of Q&A.

They’ve made literature sexy – because of their success stories, but does the fact that they have come from management backgrounds and position their pen against the end goal of a fat bottom-line enable them to write themselves into money? If Tripathi is to be believed, the right kind of marketing can be the key to success, after all, his marketing and finance background have hugely helped him in the process. He approached bookstores to distribute free copies of the first chapter of his debut novel. He created video trailers and screened them at multiplexes for his sequel. For the last in the trilogy, he released a music album – all of these being marketing firsts for books. Bhagat is a player in the field of self-marketing, whether direct or through his opinion pieces and articles.

Finance and marketing geeks work hard and tend to get burnt out. They make a pot load of money and then ship out to a more reasonable version of their current profession. But is it that simple? With the way the banking and finance world runs and the state of the world economy, is it just timely and brilliant that these smart mavericks have found a way to quit a strenuous job and make a mark in the world of the Arts? Can it be a happy marriage? Tripathi’s read up on how to write (Stephen King’s On Writing), he’s made Excel sheets with date plans and character sketches in Word documents. Eventually, he learned to go with the flow. Not to forget his first attempt got rejected 20 times. But then a merger and acquisition deal or a marketing pitch can take months of hard work before falling through. Does that give you the patience and inner strength to deal with rejection and wait for success?

These men would have us believe that it’s possible to write a good story and have the readers flocking to you. Each of them has found a hook – even if they often get critiqued for poor writing and editing. Bhagat is proud of the fact that he has got those who never read to start reading. But they are selling a story – and it’s a good one and largely, ‘in the language of the common man.’ While writers write, and wait for a good peg, these young men have stories to tell – the writing is incidental to the tale. It’s like a business proposition – you think of a good business idea and kick-start it; making it happen is merely execution. So you lose the beauty of language and the metaphors of thought; you don’t get literature, you get entertainment. Popular culture provides your money’s worth, something worth writing home about, and these are the kings of pop culture.

And the applause comes from everywhere. Their books get sold for movie rights: Vikas Swarup’s Q&A, became Slumdog Millionaire catapulting him to more fame than he would have envisioned. Bhagat, already hugely successful in his own right, reached new peaks with movies like 3 Idiots and Kai Po Che being made from his books. We’ll have to see where Dharma’s version of Tripathi’s story takes him.

But more importantly, it seems they may have set the benchmarks higher. A woman today may no longer stand back and say, ‘I wish to have a man who can serenade me with wit – or money.’ Instead, she is more likely to say, ‘I wish to lie with a man spinning tales of sweet fortune.’ Can any ordinary man ever measure up? And while we are at it, can there ever be an Excel spreadsheet that outlines how one can become a successful writer, mathematical formulae et al?

That Chauhan Girl Again #Review: Those Pricey Thakur Girls

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Anuja Chauhan, Books, Reviews, Verve Magazine

Published: Verve Magazine, March 2013, Nerve/Reviews

As her previous two books roll on the floors as films, ad and screenplay writer, Anuja Chauhan is out with a third novel, which also promises a sequel

Image

For any chick-lit fan, Anuja Chauhan is a breath of fresh air. She set the stage with The Zoya Factor, ensuring that we get her milieu of razor-sharp wit, desi mise en scene, irreverent metaphors and vivid character sketches. She took it a notch further by moving away from the city grime into rural dust with Battle for Bittora, her second novel. Those Pricey Thakur Girls arrive in small-town Delhi, with middle-class morality and the desire to be strong independent women. But here she places the story in the 80s, where at every stage you are familiarising yourself with a time that seems far removed from today. It’s the time of Doordarshan, tweaked to be Desh Darpan, a time when the Emergency is still fresh in everyone’s mind, when free speech is something to be treasured and fought for. Her protagonists are a newsreader and an investigative journalist, which makes them snooty about their respective jobs as well as their differing personalities. In the midst of revolutionary thoughts, careers and salary slips, a budding romance blossoms where Debjani Thakur, the feisty but incredibly shy newsreader falls prey to Dylan Singh Shekhawat’s charms.

Chauhan treats the light-hearted women’s fiction genre with remarkable personality. There is no rallying to western chick lit; there isn’t a desperate desiness, she has made it her own with a mix of gentility and local rootedness, which she claims is nothing but “the space we all live in! This is life in India aaj kal. I’m just writing down what I see around me, every day.” After all, Chauhan grew up in a house full of girls and has two of her own. It’s not hard to see that she leans towards the darkly determined men, who are at the heart of the matter, decent. Chauhan’s wickedly humourous romances are always marked with a foray into something new while being strangely, and comfortingly, familiar. Until the sequel, then.

Q & A – ANUJA CHAUHAN

Fame – either accidental or unsolicited – accompanies the stories of your protagonists.
I just enjoy a big fat public declaration of love. When it finally happens, everybody should see, everybody should know. And so Zoya (in The Zoya Factor) dates the cricket captain, Jinni (in Battle For Bittora) embraces her political rival and makes the front pages and Debjani does… um, what she does. Maybe that’s very cheesy of me – but I think a little cheese is required in our daily diet. I like putting my protagonists in peculiar predicaments and seeing which way they’ll jump.

Why is the book set in the 80s?
Nostalgia I think. I found I was spending a lot of time telling my kids (11, 14 and 17) how life was ‘back then’ when I was growing up. No Pepsi, no pizza delivery, only DD on TV. Besides, something about this book, about five sisters growing up in a big old house with a walled garden, just felt right in the 80s. Also, maybe this was just a reaction to the kind of snappy, sassy, glossy books that are flooding the bookstores, full of ‘bold’ girls and ‘jerk’ guys, I felt like I wanted to write old-fashioned romance – no texts, only letters, no sex, only kisses.

And the darkly determined young men going after your girls…?
I do admit to the darkly determined. I don’t like fair men – I can’t write them. And I detest ditherers, so that’s out too.

Grey Lines and Power Play

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Books, Popular Culture, vervemagazine

Published: Verve Magazine, July 2012

A new-age romance between a control-freak billionaire and a literature student crashes into bedrooms, with power play, emotional battles and raging erotica

Oh my,’ says the heroine repeatedly in the bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy (2011-2012). It alternatively expresses desire, shock, despair, erotica and joy. British author, E L James, inspired by the Twilight trilogy, found her writing cast aside as ‘parasitic’ fan fiction. And then Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele’s edgy romance took the trashy reads’ world by storm, setting fire to the bookshelves, getting banned in libraries, having rioting fans get the books reinstated and finding place in Hollywood bidding war for the movie rights, with every young star clamouring for a chance to play the lead in this film.

A pale, large-eyed literature student succumbs to the mesmerising charms of a devastatingly handsome, sexually deviant 20-something billionaire. The pages are laden with expletives, orgasms, whips and BDSM erotica, and somewhere lurks a haunting resemblance to the protagonists of Twilight. Which is shocking because Edward Cullen and Bella Swan were chaste – too chaste for their day. They barely kissed in three huge volumes of text, and made love once – when she manages to promptly get pregnant. But Grey and Steele can’t hold themselves back from crashing orgasmically through James’ trilogy, dubbed as ‘Mommy porn’.

‘I can hardly believe my good fortune. I can’t believe that he’s mine.’ You would want to whip or slap some sense into the protagonist, because you are supposed to get turned on by their friction, their delicious power struggles, their unending insecurities…. And that’s the point of no return. At the base level, James’ is suggesting that every girl wants a rich, handsome, powerful guy who desperately desires her. And deep down inside she wonders why he wants her so bad. Is she worthy of him? And every man wants a woman who loves him unconditionally and can make him happy. The fact that she is strong-willed annoys him and turns him on all at once. Is he worthy of her? Should one knowingly draw one’s self-esteem from another person?

The protagonist’s weak attempts at feminism fall prey to her lover’s need for control. Screw feminism, being commanded by a powerful man, who can skillfully pull strings of desire, is enormously sexy. But bondage isn’t just physical, it’s emotional, and it’s about breaking free when it crosses the point of no return. As she discovers her own limits, she forces him to overcome his demons and become whole, feel alive and human. Through these novels that tread new boundaries, break social barriers and open up taboo sexual topics for coffee-table discussions, the awful writing is just unfortunate for the reader. You cringe through the pages – particularly through the references of the protagonist’s ‘inner goddess’, wondering how this could become so big. No pun intended. Then, you unwillingly get wrapped up in their weaknesses and plights. You begin rooting for them, painfully learning to ignore their annoyingly one-dimensional characters and cloying issues and never-ending sex. (How do they get so much energy?) Their pain becomes yours. And so you fall. Oh my.

Keeping It Real

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Art, Literature & Culture, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Books, Food, vervemagazine

Published: Verve Magazine, July 2012

Debutante author Kiran Manral has an animated interaction with writers and bloggers on her debut novel The Reluctant Detective at the Trident-BKC’s Botticino

Event01

The monsoon ride to a luncheon book reading at the Trident-BKC’s Botticino restaurant was surprisingly quick. The clouds were dark and gathered, but not ominous. The hotel is chic, crisp and unostentatious. You’d expect a bustling business hotel, but the soft water channels, elegant jaali work and neck-craning tall ceilings masked the muted conversations floating around. Verve’s Arti Sarin and I were early: we settled into the Botticino’s little cozy seating area (off their grappa display cabinet with hand-blown glass bottles), where The Reluctant Detective’s charmingly poised and self-deprecating author, Kiran Manral, was to read from her book.

The Reluctant Detective by a first-time novelist treads new boundaries: the protagonist, Kanan Mehra, aka Kay, mustn’t be taken seriously. She bumbles and fumbles her way through a murder investigation – with the author’s trademark humour. Less of a stretch with the latter in the book would have made the writing crisper and less stream-of-consciousness. Yet, as the author is already on her next in series, you know she is creating a protagonist meant to be around with some permanence, and you wonder what Kay is likely to be embroiled in next.

For lunch, the Trident-Botticino’s chef Vikas Vichare put up a fine spread: a refreshing antipasto of ripe mango and asparagus in a filo pastry, to toast the season’s end for the king of fruits. Quick on the follow was a fresh pear, pecorino and arugula salad or a roast chicken roulade with marsala wine stewed figs, caramelised shallots and pistachio, if you please. While my choice for the mains was the ricotta and goat cheese ravioli; I could see the others savouring the meat options: chilli and fennel crusted snapper with orange sauce, and the mushroom and mozzarella filled chicken breast with sautéed fennel and thyme jus. As the wine glasses rolling with Frescobaldi Pater Sangiovese Di Toscana clinked to a well-balanced palate, the table wrapped up with a lovely-textured tiramisu and a berry sorbet.

At the beautifully laid table in a private alcove, conversation flowed easily between travel blogger Nisha Jha, food blogger Pushpa Moorjani, author Shakti Salgaokar and Manral, ranging from living the protagonist, to audience expectations, marketing a book and back-packing, while blogger Anuradha Shankar was snapping away with her camera at the elegant and meticulous plating. With Manral’s references to her spouse as “the husband” and to her intolerance towards cooking, we began to realise – in sweet irony over beautifully seasoned and balanced food – how much of the protagonist was her own alter ego. In this case, knowing the author uplifts the book to a place where the character unfolds and seems to come alive, larger than life, and so uncompromisingly realistic.

And one man we love to hate. (Hint: Five Point OMG)

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Books, Chetan Bhagat, India, Literature, Love2HateU

Just watched Love2HateU with the celebrity guest being Chetan Bhagat. I feel rather bad for the hater, the poor girl stood no chance against Bhagat’s generous Gandhi-ism. He was so beatifically patronizing and condescending that I wonder she didn’t throw something at him. But that’s Chetan Bhagat – a huge icon and idol to some and a huge eyebrow raiser to others.

Bhagat’s success – and he is astonishingly successful – is because he has crawled through the cracks and found his target audience. And what a target audience that is. The non-readers. Instead of churning out a high-brow book filled with beautiful metaphors and aiming for the Booker, Bhagat does what he does best – appeal to the section of the readers that is undiscerning. But that’s not to say that his writing has no merit. It’s just unpalatable to a reader who wants something more – an enhanced literary experience, if you must.

Bhagat makes no pretensions about his literary aspirations, but he appears to consider you with pitiful glances if you question his success. He basks in his own stupendous success, often lying on a raft of self-appreciation, and what irks people is that his raft never, ever capsizes. Top models can have a bad hair day, brilliant directors can have a box office flop, the Sensex can crash, but Chetan Bhagat only goes from strength to strength.

His hater questioned the audience and their intelligence. One girl defensively answered, “Ya we read other stuff. But I don’t want to read Rushdie. I’d much rather read Bhagat.” So you have a polarized readership of Indians. The ones who read Rushdie or Amitav Ghosh and the ones who read Bhagat. Bhagat has automatically found his masses, found his safety in numbers and addressed the people who look for easy escapism in reading and not for anything challenging. Bhagat is proud of the fact that he has made people who don’t read, read. Readers are appalled by the fact that these non-readers have begun with reading his books and set their literary standard there. But each to his own, right?

And in a democratic world, readers should have that choice. Readers should have beach novels, glossy magazines, Mills & Boon and Bhagat. It isn’t annoying that Bhagat’s books are valid reading options for people. What’s annoying is how much people like them, and give him a reason to keep going. And it would be far less annoying if he didn’t think so much of himself. “I’m happy to be on this show (Love2HateU) because my new book has just released and I want to know that there are people here who don’t like what I do, not just people who enjoy my books.” Oh stuff it.

To Read or To Buy?

25 Thursday Feb 2010

Posted by sitanshi talati-parikh in Musings

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Books, Indian Fiction, Literature, Thoughts

Today, I took a turn about the Strand Book Fair at Bajaj Hall, Nariman Point. There was a time, back during my college days, when I would count the days until the book fair and saved up pocket money for my No. 1 indulgence. There were some amazing deals back in the day – books piled upon books, some obscure titles, all at throw-away prices. It was fun rummaging through them and collecting a whole bunch of treasures. Today (and it has been the case recently) seeing that pitiful selection of books lined up on tables spine up, face down, sorted according to a rather unintelligible system, it made me feel sad. I felt a compulsion to buy – just coz I was there, I even picked a couple of titles up, but then put them down again. Ironically, I can indulge myself now, but the temptation is much lower. Either I have lost the maniacal desire to own that a literature student always has, or the fair was just plain boring. I’d rather go with the latter – a sign that kindles are winning over books. A shoe sale will have hordes of women pushing and shoving in an unlady-like fashion to get to that perfect stiletto. Even the plant and bonsai garden sale on Marine Drive garners more attention than the once-popular Strand Book Fair.
And it’s not just that the prices are not really tempting – it’s a bit of a sham. The discounts on the books are what is regularly offered by them in their store and by others for regular buyers. The ones with the mega deals are hardly visible. The hall looks dull and lifeless, like the line of titles not even bothering to vie for attention. Books have NEVER made me feel so dismal as the book fair has today.

 

We were recently was discussing how Danai in Bandra has a certain old
book store charm and character and how big chain stores lack that
feeling. I go to Crossowrds to grab a coffee and maybe a book. I would
go to Danai to find the book that I can’t elsewhere. Also, it is
amazing how those who run a book store have no idea where their books
are. Oxford, case in point, at Churchgate. Their staff is clueless
about the books. A big book store is just that – a shop with books. A
book shop should have real charm and character, where you can chat
with the staff knowledgebly, the owner will participate because
reading and knowledge shouldn’t be commercialised. I guess that’s what
the movie You’ve Got Mail was about. It’s happening here now, and
there’s nothing we can do to stop the art of reading becoming the
front of the salesman.

|  Filling the gaps between words.  |

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