CHANGE SHAPES INDIA INSIDE AND OUT
October thoughts from South Asia
Will the Bookstores Walk Away?
I hope not.
For many people, bookstores are favorite places to hang out. Apart from picking the book you had set foot inside for, the smell of fresh paper feels so intoxicating. Bookstores have accumulated energies of several hundred thousand people, and you as a customer can’t have enough of it. Each book is like a fresh new life; each life – or lives – trapped in it is a refreshing revelation.
But there’s something weird happening to the bookstores here in Delhi, the city I currently live in. Weird enough to make me reflect, whine, and wonder. Let me elaborate. During the last two years in the Indirapuram locality of suburban Delhi, I have seen three bookstores close down – all owned by major bookselling Indian chains (Odyssey, Crossword and Pages). While the industry, I understand, continues to grow (industry sources peg growth at thirty percent), I attribute the phenomenon to the coming of age of the Indian readers who have started buying books online. Flipkart, Indiaplaza and other online retailers are doing well, I gather. I ordered a book from Flipkart last week and pronto, it was at my doorstep in three days, cash on delivery. I loved their efficiency but in no time I began to miss the experience of buying from a bookstore.
Granta 115: The F Word, Launch Party at New Delhi
Yes, I was there. So were lots of people, about one hundred (the number swelled to over two hundred later during the wine and snacks that followed), including a panel of feminist speakers.
I, sadly, don’t understand much about the ideas in feminism, but it was good to listen to the speakers; they spoke about fears I have never known and about discomfort and harassment from men, which seems exaggerated to me. But it must be happening, I reckon so, or these women wouldn’t discuss their concerns in a frank way. In a cozy auditorium in the very central and smart India Habitat Center, I listened with a lot of enthusiasm to the women and was moved by the breadth of space they created about ideas.
I loved the reading by Urvashi Butalia, the lone Indian writer whose work has been featured in Granta 115. Her short fiction is about an Indian transsexual called Mona and is aptly titled ‘Mona’s Story’. One fact that was vociferously aired by the panelists was the lack of space given to the Indian writers from India (as opposed to Indian writers from the U.K.) in Granta. If the news reaches the Granta editors, I am sure things will change. I understand the editors there are good, and they mean business. Don’t they?
We Want Change
Everyone wants change: governance, roads, education, facilities, new curtains, food, and partners perhaps. You name it! I guess it would be a lot better if we changed ourselves first.
We live in a beautiful world that’s far from perfect. As soon as we become comfortable we want things to change. And comfortable people are the ones who control everything.
If you have followed the news closely you will see my point. India is fast awakening to an Utopian ambition – a corrupt-free nation. And corruption is not just about money; it’s about attitude, intention, civic mannerism, and not to expect others to do your job. I want this change for sure. So does India.
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