SubEditor : Maryam Sayyed
SahityaWarta | September 8 | Camil Parkhe
These two events happened in quick succession. I had gone to the office of the 120-year-old Niropiya magazine at the Snehsadan of the Jesuit Fathers in Shaniwar Peth, Pune.
After leaving there, I went to the Majestic book stall across the street. This is my usual routine. Even though I had decided not to buy a book, in the end, I ended up making a purchase.
I put Govind Talwalkar’s Pushpanjali Volume Two in my bag and started reading it during my return journey on the metro.
This book is a collection of obituaries published in Maharashtra Times during the 1980s. My aim was to read only the articles about certain personalities from fields I was familiar with and interested in.
So, I skipped over an article about a foreign couple and continued reading the next one. After some time, my eyes returned to the same article, and as soon as I read the first line, I paused.
The article was about Will Durant and his wife, Ariel Durant. I had intensely read Will Durant’s thick book, The History of Philosophy, while studying in Goa.
At Dhempe College in Miramar, Panaji, philosophy was my specialization for both my BA and MA degrees, and Durant’s book was a key reference for that.
Interestingly, I recently found out that Sane Guruji had translated this book into Marathi under the title Pashchimatya Tattvadyanachi Katha (The Story of Western Philosophy).As I was reading, I casually glanced around.
In the entire six-carriage metro, I was the only one reading a book; most others were engrossed in their mobile phones.
From the 70s, 80s, and even the 90s, while traveling by bus, I always had a book in my satchel. Other passengers also used to read newspapers, and sometimes they would ask for a page or two from another’s paper to read.In today’s mobile age, that is now history. Will you ever see anyone reading a book during a bus ride, on a plane, or in any other vehicle nowadays?
If someone today is holding a newspaper with its ten or twelve pages spread out, turning them to read the content, that person would surely be considered outdated and backward. A person using a mobile device, on the other hand, knows the latest news from just a few moments ago — something no newspaper can offer.While most people in the metro were using advanced technology, I must have appeared like a backward person reading a book.
Of course, I didn’t realize this at the time; it occurred to me only the next day when I met with my publishers.During that meeting, Kunal Hazare from Chetak Books gave me the links to all the e-books of my published works!
Here’s the truth: I have not read a single e-book until now.It is well-known that the Marathi book publishing industry is currently facing a severe downturn. Many publishers today charge enthusiastic authors for publishing their books.As a solution, Chetak Books recently started making all of their books available in print, audio, and video formats.
Marathi e-books, audiobooks, or video books are not new concepts. However, this may be the first time that a publishing house in the Marathi industry has decided to release all of its books as e-books and distribute them independently.
All of my books published by Chetak Books are now available in e-book format.
These books include Stories from Journalism in Goa and Maharashtra, Journalism in Goa and Maharashtra, The Christian Community Outside the Village, Goa as I Saw It, The Various Forms of Culture, and The Marathi Community Around the Cross.
Of course, you will need to install the Chetak Books app to read these e-books. You can either subscribe for a year at the cost of ₹180 to access all available e-books or buy a specific e-book of your choice.
This means that if you see people absorbed in their mobiles or laptops in the metro or elsewhere, they are not necessarily just passing time.
Some of them might be doing online work for their business or job, while others may be reading news, newspapers, or even books.
I am now going to break my habit of carrying books everywhere I go and develop a new habit of reading e-books.
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