Navin Kishore pulls out books at random. Andre Gorz, Slavenka Drakulic, Jean-Paul Sartre, Tariq Ali, Guillaume Apollinaire — the names come tumbling out. A heavy downpour has brought traffic outside to a grinding halt and drivers are letting their horns rip. But despite the open windows, the room in the first floor Seagull Books office in south Kolkata is quiet. “The road outside was an avenue lined by trees when we rented this place in 1976, but it’s getting worse by the day,” says Kishore, who founded the independent publishing house that brings out books on art and culture.
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“We’re not just an Indian publishing house,” he says, rattling off names of a fast growing international list of authors. “In today’s globalized world, we should be able to publish anything and everything in our chosen field of interest regardless of where we are physically as long as we can provide quality and assure our authors the courtesy of a worldwide distribution. We are bringing back thought that had disappeared from bookshelves because it doesn’t sell vast numbers,” says the man whose publishing house has the world rights for Paul Celan, Rabindranath Tagore and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: I grew up on ideals that Gandhi lived by. In fact, our Peaceworks Programme has been inspired by the teachings of Gandhi. Indranil Bhoumik / Mint
“For instance, Sartre’s
The Aftermath of War may not find favour with mainstream publishing companies, for whom it’s all about figures,” says Kishore, lamenting the fact that most bookstores nowadays, especially the chain bookstores, don’t stock the works of most such authors. He recalls a small store at The Oberoi Grand hotel arcade, named Foreign Publishers, which he used to frequent in his college days. “Not only did the old gent who ran the place know what authors a reader liked, but would also lead the reader into other realms,” says Kishore, adding that many of the authors he loves to read now were introduced to him by “Mr Chatterjee of Foreign Publishers”.
“Chain bookstores need to train their staff better. The young men and women wearing red, yellow T-shirts try hard, are earnest, but don’t know anything about books,” says Kishore. “What is needed are more independent bookstores such as Foreign Publishers, where the owners are good at reading the mind of the buyer.”
According to Kishore, whose parents came from Lahore during Partition, the independent, stand-alone bookstore which lost ground initially to chain bookstores is gradually staging a comeback and is the only way forward for serious book lovers. “Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waterstones are all in trouble, but independents are surviving because of their specialist stocking and lack of complicated overheads.”