Meaningless exercise

— Arup Kumar DuttaThe love and reverence, almost bordering on worship, the older generation had bestowed upon books is a thing of the past. Today books have become a commodity for buying and selling just like potatoes or onions! Promoters of the book reading habit have to tout its utilitarian benefits if they are to get their point across. Parents buy books for their children solely because it might improve their job prospects. Teachers recommend books just because these might improve their grades!

The sheer delight of reading a book by one’s favourite author is no longer an objective. The hunger that we had displayed for story books when we were children is absent in today’s youngsters. They had rather look to the idiot box or video-game parlours for entertainment and relaxation. As for acquiring information, mostly exam or career related, the computer and internet is always there! Neither the domestic nor educational environment is conducive towards inculcating the reading habit.

Since books have become a commodity, it is but natural that incongruities like book fairs, similar to trade-fairs or sari-sales, have become an integral component of the yearly event-calendar. So, each year, organisations such as our state’s publishers association or the Publication Board muddle through this meaningless exercise and hold book fairs at the appointed hours! No doubt, through holding of literary meets and other functions, they do attempt to impart an intellectual flavour to the events. With little success, however, for book fairs continue to retain their original objective, the sale of books on a commercial basis.

And, since we in Assam are past masters at quarrelling between ourselves, we have rival organisations vying for the job, never mind the fact that, in doing so, they are reducing each of their individual fairs to mediocrity. The good citizens of Guwahati have never been profligate buyers of books, as the few bookshop owners of this benighted metropolis will vouchsafe. Thus I cannot understand the rationale behind having two ‘major’ book fairs in the city, one almost holding on to the skirt of the other.

I had visited both the recently held book fairs and was least impressed by publisher representation in them. Let alone international publishers, even reputed national ones were conspicuous by their absence. A majority were local agencies whose books are available any day of the week at their book shops located in the city. This remains true even for so called Delhi based publishers such as The National Book Trust which have their outlet here, or mammoth text-book publishers such as S Chand & Co. Organisations such as the Sahitya Akademi, Archaeological and Geological Survey of India etc too had made their token presence, but the fare they offered were nothing to write home about.

I recall the days long ago when a single Guwahati Book Fair had been held at Judge’s Field. Those had been far bigger and memorable occasions when there had truly been national representation. Big names in the publishing business had jostled for space with their smaller counterparts. Today, most national publishers prefer to make their books available through distributors, despite the fact that the latter demands a king’s ransom for acting as brokers. Perhaps this phenomenon speaks volumes for the dwindling sales figures for participants, never mind the volume of tickets sold at the gate that the fair organisers often crow about.

One positive aspect of such fairs is, of course, the reality that they prod people, who are normally strangers to bookshops, to renew their acquaintance with the commodity, even if it be in the nature of an evening out with the family. But I fail to see what purpose they serve for the genuine book lover and the congenital book-buyer. Rather than mingle with the crowd and be constantly poked in the ribs in a tiny cubicle, the genuine book lover would, I am sure, be happier browsing in a bookshop in a spacious environment and with time in hand. Anyway, most of the ware on display, repeated ad infinitum in different stalls, can be found in any well-stocked bookstall in the city. Nowadays, latest releases are publicised as well as offered for purchase through the internet, and one really does not need to enter the dusty ambience of a periodic book fair to acquire what one wants.

Thus, logically, a metropolis like Guwahati does not need a book fair, let alone two, of the type being currently organised. Such fairs are actually needed in small townships and remote rural areas, which lack good bookshops. Institutions like the Assam Publication Board can better help the state if they organise book fairs elsewhere in Assam, particularly in rural areas. Apart from providing a platform for writers of various hues to strut about in the umpteen functions and releases, the needless exercise in an urban environment like Guwahati contributes precious little.

A few organisations appear to be cognizant of such a need, and have been holding small but extremely useful book fairs in moffusil towns and rural areas. But organisations with greater resources are chary of doing the same because of the low returns, the purchasing power of potential book lovers in such places being far lower than those of big cities. The biggest constraint, of course, is the phenomenal rise in prices of books. Unfortunately, for most lovers of books it is a case of the heart being willing, but the purse being not.

Rather than squander their energy in hosting book fairs, institutions which are financed by the taxpayer’s money, such as the Assam Publication Board, can devote their time and money into producing better books at a cheaper cost. Since these institutions are subsidised by the Government, they can absorb a part of the cost of production, thereby reducing the price of the books they bring out. Unfortunately, there seems to be little initiative on the part of such institutions and the bureaucrats who run them, to produce books more in keeping with the current times. They appear to think their duty done if they reprint ‘heritage’ books! Publishing books with themes that might interest today’s young generation is not on their agenda.

And, if they actually believe that holding of book fairs is a dire necessity, it is time they bury their hatchets and work together to organise a single big event of international stature and repute. Otherwise book fairs will continue to remain meaningless exercises bereft of any utility value whatsoever. source: assam tribune