All ears for audiobooks
Long commutes, the pressures of family life that leave no time for reading, and the allure of big names narrating stories are some of the reasons why many Indians are tuning in to dramatized readings
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them,
They licked the platter clean.
Swaddled in woollens, Ruskin Bond has been eating “a lot of Christmas pudding” and regaling all the kids in his adoptive family with hilarious rhymes as they sit around the fire on freezing winter evenings in his cottage up in the hills of Mussoorie. Rare would be the booklover who wouldn’t give an arm and a leg to be a part of this cosy gathering. While that may still remain a dream, having Ruskin Bond read to us in the comfort of our homes is now very much possible.
The 85-year-old is among an increasing number of Indian writers who are recording their works in the form of audiobooks. And while spoken word books and speech-to-text have been around since the 1930s, it’s only in the 1980s that audiobooks as we know them gained popularity, aided by accessible and affordable audio tapes and CDs. And now apps have made entire libraries available on platforms like Amazon Audible, Google Books, Kobo Gutenberg Reader and Storytel, to name a few.
While most books are read by voice artists, and actors from both screen and stage, some are read by the writers themselves. Ruskin Bond, for instance, has recorded half a dozen of his Puffin titles like Getting Granny’s Glasses, The Wind on Haunted Hill, and Tree Lover. “I have to confess, I had practised a little,” he laughed when asked how the recording went off. “It took me back in time to when I was in London and I did readings for the BBC, and then when I lived in Delhi in the 1960s, I used to do the occasional talk on All India Radio,” said Bond.
Another writer who enjoyed recording is Arundhati Roy, who has read her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, in a beautiful, lilting voice. “I loved reading the audio book of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. My publishers were keen that I read it myself. I love reading my work aloud, because when I write I hear my words, the rhythm of every single sentence,” said Roy. She would love to record more. “I would read my fiction any day. The non-fiction, yes sure, but My Seditious Heart is a thousand pages long.”
According to Penguin Random House India (PRHI), which has over 200 audio book titles, non-fiction fares better in India. “We have observed that customers prefer non-fiction audiobooks since these also serve as a knowledge-gaining tool,” a company spokesperson said. In the last couple of years, some PRHI titles that had India’s ear are An Unsuitable Boy by Karan Johar, Swami Vivekananda: The Living Vedanta by Badrinath Chaturvedi, and Sita by Devdutt Pattanaik.
One non-fiction title that is particularly enjoyable on audio is Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India by Shashi Tharoor, read by the author-MP in his crisp English. “It was both easier and longer than expected but I enjoyed the recording sessions, though they took a good chunk of time,” Tharoor says. “The project came about because I was approached by my UK paperback publishers, Penguin Books, to do it and I happily took on the challenge.”
Though he is yet to try an audio book himself — “Never heard an audiobook, not even mine!” — he understands the appeal of the spoken word. “I prefer to read, and read faster than anyone can read aloud, but commuters on long journeys who drive themselves, or can’t read in moving vehicles, can gain a lot from audiobooks,” he feels.
Among Indian fiction, Westland titles like Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta and Sita: Warrior of Mithila by Amish are doing well on Amazon Audible. Non-fiction like Boots Belts Berets narrated by Rannvijay Singh Singha and Robin Sharma’s books, like The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari are also popular.
From the international list, Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming and The Definitive Collection of Sherlock Holmes by Stephen Fry are top draws on Audible.
There are many reasons why Indians are all ears for audiobooks. Kaushik Ghosh, a communications professional in Kolkata, says he is sold on the superior quality. “I had earlier tried the speech-to-text option that came with some ebooks, but the robotic quality of the speech was not appealing at all. But now it’s different. It’s sheer pleasure to hear Stephen Fry read Sherlock Holmes or Neil Gaiman read his Norse Mythology.”
For young mother Madhurima Chatterjee of Delhi, audiobooks are her only connection to books now. “I used to be a curl-up-with-a-paperback-for-hours kind of girl before motherhood hit me like a ton of bricks last year. Now, who has the time or the energy? Audiobooks were never my thing, but desperation drove me to them. And I’ve never been more thankful. I tune out my everyday chaos by plugging into Audible or YouTube while I go about my chores,” says the publishing professional, who is currently hooked to The Last Wish in The Witcher series.
She would love for her son to start listening to stories soon. Away from grandparents, maybe it’ll be a children’s audiobook that’ll start off little Rudra on his literary journey.
Ruskin Bond, too, feels that “the oral tradition of grandparents telling stories is dying out in India, except perhaps in some small villages, where people still tell children mythological tales and ghost stories.”
When Amazon’s Audible came to India in 2018, it was this long oral tradition that led them to bet big on the Indian market. “In India, our love of storytelling is ingrained in our culture, as we share stories generation after generation, and as we create and pass on new stories with family and friends today,” said Shailesh Sawlani, VP, Country Manager India, Audible, while launching an India-first app called Audible Suno in December 2019.
This app expands Audible’s library to spoken word entertainment in the form of audio series voiced by well-known names, including Amitabh Bachchan for the spooky series Kaali Awaazein, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Tabu for Thriller Factory, directed by Anurag Kashyap, and Vir Das for a comedy series titled Be Stupid with Vir Das.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui has done a particularly stellar job narrating the Hindi noir tale by Ved Prakash Sharma, Apne Katl Ki Supari.
“Some of our Suno Originals that really caught on are Thriller Factory, Yoddha by Neelesh Misra and comedy titles like The Unexperts by Abish Mathew and Why Would You Do This? by Sahil Shah,” said Sawlani.
The content on Audible Suno is free, and Audible offers a monthly subscription of Rs 199, which gives you one free audiobook per month, and a discount on its 200,000-strong list of audiobooks. Storytel comes at a monthly fee of Rs 299, and has a huge library, including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Urdu and Malayalam books.
Read more: Reading books, with your ears
Audible is going big with local content as well. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re just getting started. We added 250 new titles in Hindi and Urdu in December 2019, like Charagh by Waseem Barelvi, Manas Ka Hans by Amritlal Nagar and Buri Ladki by Priyanka Gupta, as well as translations like Meri Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik, The Mastery Manual by Robin Sharma and Chanakya Mantra by Ashwin Sangh,” says Sawlani.
Original content, Amitabh Bachchan or Ruskin Bond telling you a story, long commute, young child — there are many reasons why Indians are tuning into audiobooks. The best reason possibly came from a young writer who shall remain unnamed.
“Truth be told, I’ve never been able to get through Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Tried and failed at least thrice. Whenever anyone mentions how much they love this book, I just nod along and slink away. Then I downloaded a dramatised reading of Midnight’s Children available on Audible and I was hooked. Thank God, I don’t have to lie anymore!”