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Gomti Book Festival: Authors’ corner keeps visitors coming back for more
A discussion on book trades and the publishing market, followed by an author’s interview on her book ‘Great Tribal Warriors of Bharat’ kept the audience and book lovers engaged.
The Authors’ Corner at the Gomti Book Festival here saw two back-to-back riveting discussions on Monday, the third day of the 9-day affair. A discussion on book trades and the publishing market, followed by an author’s interview on her book ‘Great Tribal Warriors of Bharat’ kept the audience and book lovers engaged.
The first discussion was moderated by Chander Prakash from Universal Booksellers, with panellists Kartik Raj Kushvah and Prabhat Kumar, both of whom run publishing houses based in Delhi. Kushvah spoke of the “irony and miracle that is the Indian publishing industry,” saying that while India stands third in terms of publishing globally, those working in the industry face major issues of copyright and piracy. Prakash also stressed that this problem has never been a priority for the government, stating that although India relies heavily on publishing, “It is the most unrecognised entrepreneurial sector in the country.”
Kushvah also stressed that when it comes to translations into English or, from English into regional languages or local dialects, the business should go to Indian translators or publishing houses, rather than the work getting outsourced to publications abroad. “If France has created legislation for booksellers in the country, so can India.”
The panellists told the audience how most books bought through online platforms are available at such heavily discounted prices because they are fake: the printing is undertaken by parties other than the intended publishers and the commission is made by online platforms. They reiterated that more readers should support local bookstores and awareness programmes for book trade should be organised.
This session was followed by a discussion with one of the writers of the book ‘The Great Tribal Warriors of Bharat’, Ambalika Bhat. Bhat was responsible for the intensive research required for this book and the job took her 11 months to complete. In her address, she spoke at length about some of the characters whom she had researched. The book details the origin stories of 17 great tribal warriors from all over India who lent themselves to the freedom struggle. Moderator Mohit Gupta, founder and chief curator at City Book Leaders kept the interaction interesting by including the audience and asking general knowledge questions on the people and subjects discussed in the book.
“The research for this book took me 11 months, and I have had some amazing experiences in the process. I saw Rani Guidinliu (a Naga spiritual and political leader who died in 1993) as my guiding light. When I fell very ill during the pandemic in the midst of my research, I saw her in my dreams telling me to go on with this pursuit,” said Bhat.
The book festival has been very successful in the first few days. The first two days saw over 10-11,000 or more visitors by evening, and the publishers were able to recover all the costs of set-up through sales on the first day itself.
Photo expo on Patel
On National Unity Day (October 31), the Festival also organised a photo exhibition titled ‘Sardar Patel: the architect of unification’ which was inaugurated by Surya Pal Gangwar, district magistrate, Lucknow.
The Children’s Corner created on the premises hosted a number of interactive and creative events for participating students from different schools. The events included drawing and essay-writing competitions.
In the evening, visitors gathered to witness the interview of young illustrator and animator Jignesh Chavda. RJ Prateek of Radio Mirchi kept the audience glued with music by Ojas Sahu.
