Online books: Are physical books going to turn into a nostalgia!

In this age of 140 character tweets, and minute to minute changing Facebook updates, where do readership of books stands, is a question which many people ask.
It is a common statement given by people that these online books and other things are ruining the culture of reading books. But in reality is that so?
I feel otherwise. Seriously think about the decade of 90s (only those who were born earlier ha ha). There was very little readership of books and it was going down day by day at least in India. Compare that era with today’s. I can see a positive change, it is evident everywhere the readership seems to increase and so do the prevalence of online books and online bookstores.
Let us think, if this is true than why it is so. It is mainly because, the exposure to books and literature has increased due to the prevalence of online books and online platforms. It has become easily and less time taking to browse through thousands of books online and even buy books online with just a click of the mouse.
Another very important thing, is, take for example, suppose a very good dish is prepared at a remote shop, the dish by its quality and taste beats all the dishes served at any of our five star hotels and restaurants. But will it sell, yes, it will if we come to Know About It and it has a Easier Access. Yes same is the case of books, in past, especially in India, a good book remained in the shelves of a selected few, because it was really tough to make people know about it and provide people an easy access to those books. The advent of online bookstores and online platforms have solved these issues, and hence a perceptible increase in readership is evident.
But will this trend of online books turn our physical books into a mere nostalgia, no I don’t think so. Pleasure of turning pages, the smell of pages is too good to resist and nothing can replace it. Rather the online books, act as a catalyst.
So, go ahead buy books online and read them.
Happy Reading!

Envious V/S scary: Life of western author V/S life of a Hindi author

What could be the life of an author who has a fan following of millions and same are his earnings.
He writes, what he feels and when he feels. He not too, preoccupied by the vagaries of life, especially the finances. He travels, he sits idle in his own world, he reads, he takes a pause and absorbs and enjoys every aspect of life. Isn’t this life envious?
Yes, of course it is. Imagine EL James was quoted in media reports last year to be worth 37 million pounds!
The book ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is also an amazing erotica. But do you ever heard of Mastram, an Indian erotic writer of fifties. Yes, I think you have heard about thanks to director Abhishek Jaiswal for his movie on this erotic writer of India.
What would have been Mastram’s life. Struggling for a penny, going out of house everyday with a list of groceries and empty wallet.
Forget Mastram, our great literary genius Munshi Premchand too never had fulfilling life. There are numerous who struggle day and night. I know a noted writer who is a constable in police, has bagged several awards but has no savings.
I don’t want to paint a grey picture, thanks to the new age technologies and advent of online bookstores and online books.
Now, anyone can upload their books online and they will be directly available to larger audiences who can buy books online.
This is one of the major reasons, I am an ardent supporter of online books. I see the use of technology as a platform for the Indian talent. It is proving itself to be. Now, Indian writers are getting recognized globally, their works are being translated and they have also started to earn revenues. But still we have a far long way to go.
In our country, we actually don’t have bodies which actually provide platform to authors, promote and create awareness about our rich literature among masses.
This work is being done by the market oriented online bookstores. Anyways, things are changing fast, and it’s a matter of few years when we will see reports about our authors too, that they are worth millions!
Happy reading!

भारतीय साहित्य अन्य देशों की तुलना में समृद्ध है....

साहित्य, संस्कृति और परंपरा के लिए भारत हमेशा से धनी देश रहा है। यहां की संस्कृति ऐसी है कि पूरा विश्व प्रशंसा करते नहीं थकता। यहां की परंपरा से जब कोई रूबरू होता है तो उससे बिना प्रभवित हुए नहीं रह सकता। अगर यहां कि साहित्य की बात की जाए तो साहित्य इतना धनी है कि जिसका वर्णन करना मुश्किल है। यहां के लेखकों को विदेशी अपना आदर्श मानते हैं। वैसे आलोचकों के पास एक सवाल हमेशा भारतीय साहित्य को लेकर रहता है कि अगर भारतीय साहित्य इतना धनी है तो एक रविन्द्रनाथ टैगोर को छोड़कर अन्य किसी को कोई नोबेल पुरस्कार क्यों नहीं मिला। कुछ एकाध लोगों को छोड़ दिया जाए तो बुकर सहित अन्य अतंरराष्ट्ीय पुरस्कार भारत की झोली में ना के बराबर है। एक तरह से देखा जाए तो यह तर्क और सवाल बिल्कुल ही जायज है और होना भी चाहिए। इसके बावजूद अगर आलोचक सही में इस तर्क का जवाब दे पाएंगे कि क्या प्रेमचंद की गोदान नोबेल लायक नहीं है। क्या धर्मवीर भारती की ‘गुनाहो का देवता’, फणीश्वरनाथ रेणु की ‘मैला आंचल’, भीष्म साहनी की ‘तमस’, शरत चंद्र चटर्जी की ‘देवदास‘, जयशंकर प्रसाद की ‘कमायनी’ जैसी किताबें नोबेल की मोहताज है। इसका सीधा जवाब है बिल्कुल नहीं। इसके अलावा भी इस विविधता वाले देश में कई क्षे़त्रीय जैसे मराठी, कन्नड़, मलयालम, तेलगू, तमिल, गुजराती, पंजाबी, बंगाली और असमिया सहित कई ऐसी भाषाएं है जिनके साहित्य इतना धनी है जिसकी कोई तुलना नहीं। इसके बावजूद भी आज के आधुनिक दौर के लेखक विश्व स्तरीय साहित्य का लेखन कर रहे हैं, जिसमें हिन्दी और अंग्रेजी दोनों के साहित्यकार शामिल हैं।
इसमें सबसे अच्छी बात है कि आज के दौर में साहित्यकारों के लिए लेखन, प्रकाशन और प्रचार करना और आसान हो गया है। उनके हाथ में सोशल मीडिया, टीवी, सामचार पत्र, बेबसाइट सहित अन्य कई उपयोगी चीजें है जिसका उपयोग कर वे अपनी किताबों का प्रचार प्रसार असानी से करते हैं। अगर पाठको तक किताब पहुंचाने की बात करें तो इसे ई-कमर्स कंपनियों ने और आसान बना दिया है। इंटरनेट पर किताबें खरीदना (buy books online) बहुत आसान हो गया है। यहां आॅनलाइन बुक्स (online books) के साथ-साथ आनलाइन बुक्सस्टोर (online bookstore) भी उपलब्ध हैं जो पाठकों तक न्यू रीलिज के साथ ही किताबें पहुंच जाती है। अतः अपने देशी साहित्यकार भी किसी अंतरराष्टृीय साहित्यकारों से कम नहीं है।

Why reading a novel is better than watching movies based on it…

“The context in which a photograph is seen affects the meaning the viewer draws from it”—This famous quote of Stephen Shore about photographs I believe fits well on books too.

Nowadays, we come across lot of online books and read (atleast are aware of) more books than we did a decade ago (by this I mean the number of readers is increasing, though per capita reading time I think has decreased), all thanks to the option to buy books online, due to the number of online bookstores.

But at the same time a lot of movies are being made on novels, it often makes us think, whether it is good to read a book or watch a movie based on it, which will be better is a question that we shall discuss here.

But for that we need to understand, what are books? For authors, books are their thoughts, interpretation of things and the way they look at the world.

For readers, I think books are like raw materials for a painting, it contains, a canvas, colors and some hints, which makes us paint a picture, on our minds when we read the books.

Try to concentrate, what happens when you read online books, or even physical books, normally  as soon as we get involved in characters, incidents and emotions in a book, a movie runs in our mind and we tend to see it, i.e., we tend to interpret the book in our own way.

But when we watch a movie, we already have a picture. A movie based on a book is basically an interpretation of the book by the director. It is the picture, which the director could make in his mind, when he read the book.

Thus, I literally believe, movies on books restrict our own imagination, we are influenced by the director’s interpretation, we see from the eyes of the director. So I firmly believe that when it comes to movies based on books, we should prefer reading books, than watching movies. Its good to watch the movie after you have read the books.

So, before buying tickets, buy books online, read them and then go for movies!!

Happy Reading!

किताबों का शौक पालें...

चाहे आप किसी भी प्रवृति अथवा स्वाभाव के आदमी है, अगर आपको आगे बढ़ना है तो आपको किताबों का शौक पालना चाहिए। इस शौक से आपके ही नहीं आपके परिवार, आस-पास के लोग और पूरा समाज प्रभावित होगा। इसका सबसे पहले प्रभाव आपके परिवार और बच्चों पर पड़ेगा। क्योंकि अगर आपका बच्चा और घर के लोग आपको पढ़ते देखेंगे तो उन्हें भी पढ़ने की आदत पड़ेगी। क्योंकि आज के आधुनिक युग में बच्चे पढ़ने पर कम और टीवी-कंप्यूटर गेम पर अधिक ध्यान देते हैं। ऐसे में यह आपके पूरे परिवार के लिए लाभाकारी होगा। दूरा पारिवारिक फायदा यह होगा की किताबों के चयन और उसके विश्लेषण की माध्यम से आप अपने परिवार वालों को सही किताबों की चयन में मदद कर सकते हैं।
    अगर हम आस-पास के लोगों को लाभान्वित करने की बात करते हैं तो, किताबों के चिंतन-मनन से आपके पास ज्ञान के अकूत भंडार होंगे जो किताब नहीं पढ़ने वालों के पास नहीं होते। ऐसे में स्वभाविक है कि आपकी ज्ञान की प्रशंसा और चर्चा सभी जगह होगी। आज की किताबों से लेकर पुराने लेखकों की किताबों से आप रूबरू हुए रहते हैं। ऐसे में यह कहना बेमानी नहीं होगी कि आपसे आस-पास के लोग लाभान्वित नहीं होंगे। आपकी जानकारी एवं अन्य ज्ञानों से आस-पास लोग स्वभाविक रूप से प्रभावित एवं लाभान्वित होंगे। अगर हम सामाज की बात करें तो जिस जगह आप उपस्थित रहेंगे वहां आपकी पुछ होगी। क्योंकि अगर आप समाजिक है तो यह सबको मालूम रहता है कि आप क्या हैं। ऐसे में लोग आपसे लाभ लेने की भरपूर कोशि करेंगे।
    इसके बावजूद सबसे बड़ा सवाल यह है कि आप कहां से अपडेट और सर्वज्ञय हो सकते हैं, तो इसका सीधा से उत्तर है इंटरनेट। आज इंटरनेट के माध्यम से आप बेहद अपडेट रह सकते हैं और ऐसे में आपने किताबों का शौक पाल रखा है तो इंटरनेट पर कई ऐसी वेबसाइटें (website) है जो आपको बेहद सस्ती किमतों में किताबें आॅनलाइन बुक्स (online books) उपलब्ध कराती हैं। ऐसे ही वेबसाइटों में योरबुकस्टाॅल भी शामिल है जहां आप सस्ती किताबें खरीद (buy books online)सकते हैं। तो आप भी पाल रहे हैं न किंताबों का शौक।....
   

Why I Love Online Books?

Thirteen years ago I received a letter by post. The letter sent by someone named Savita Gupta, a student of BA second year congratulated me ( I was in standard 11 then), on my story which was published in an Hindi Daily published from West Bengal, ‘Sanmarg’.

The writer of that letter found my story very inspiring.

Today, I don’t have the copy of that newspaper as I was out of town when it was published and as I never anticipated that the story will be published, I did not bother to be cautious about getting the newspaper. Today I don’t know where that letter is, the writer did not give her address or contact details, so I don’t know anything about her.  But what I have today is digital copy of that letter as I later published it on my blog. I think it has been immortalized and it will continue to inspire me, but it is only possible because of online media and online books.

But this is not the only reason, why I love the trend of online books.

The presence of so many platforms where one can publish their books online and also sell has opened the doors of immense opportunities for people who love expressing themselves in a creative way. Blogs are also a great example of this.

Moreover it saves a lot of time and the convenience in reading online books and easy options to buy books online, have added much to the readership especially among the new generation which has very little time and patience as well.

Not only in providing an option for the expressive people to write their heart out, the presence of online books has also increased our exposure. We come to know about lot and lot of books, it has basically made the reading community more democratic, everyone has access to millions and millions of books, which was not so, a decade ago.

As long as, it will lead to happy reading moments, I will continue to love online books.

Happy reading!

The Best Tragedy Novel Of All Times

Love and tragedies constitute the biggest chunk of our literature. Browse any of the online bookstores for literature books, you will find tragedy and love books in abundance.
There are so many tragedy books online and you must have read a few of them. Now, what I am going to tell you is the book which I find as the best tragedy novel ever.
It is a biography of a legend, but the legend who could never live a life of even a simple man and died struggling with his consecutive worldly failures. Yes, I am talking about the book, Lust For Life by Irwing Stone, a biography of legendary painter, Vincent Van Gogh.
Today if I accidentally manage to own any one of his paintings, I think I will not have to work rest of my life and could spend life in a luxury by just selling that painting. But how paradoxical is when we learn about the life of that painter who painted it, he struggled for everything almost everything throughout his life.
Once in the book, Irwing quotes Van Gogh as, “It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved”—this is the zest of Vincent’s life, every other woman who comes to his life goes away, leaving him empty and they go away not because Vincent is bad, but because he is poor, he in poverty. On several occasions, he had to remain empty stomach due to poverty. He has to struggle, every day for his art and he dies in the same struggle…
This may sound a bit too much tragic, but this too much is even less when we try to imagine the real life situations of that painter. Now, years after his death he is a legend. Art galleries earn by selling, reselling his paintings, his paintings which were considered to be of no use when he lived.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the way it has been written, it never gives a feel that it is biography. It remains as interesting as a fiction novel but touches every inch and corner of our heart.
Don’t believe me, give a try, go ahead and buy books online, read it and them make your mind. You will never be able to forget Vincent rest of your life.
Happy Reading!
(Views are personal, there could be other better tragedy novels too)