CHENNAI: Diala Book
On the shelves of Meenatchi Ganapathy and Meenakshi V’s homes in Mylapore, over 2,000 children’s books were neatly stacked, as a library, for about three years. While most of them are now packed in cardboard boxes, children from the neighbourhood still ring their doorbell every now and then, to borrow a book for a minimal fee, or find a quiet corner to read. Book Buddee is a mobile library that was started by the two mothers for their own children, and others in their area and school. The library’s vast collection has a book for every child between 2-10 years. We ask them why they call it a ‘mobile’ library, and they explain how they run it. “We have a catalogue of all the books available for different age groups. And we send it to the members regularly on a WhatsApp group,” says Meenatchi.
Two days in advance, parents usually tell them what books they want, and they meet at the school or one of their homes to deliver it. Sometimes, a short note or synopsis of the book is shared to help parents make a choice too. They sourced this huge collection from a friend who imported second-hand books from the US and the UK. Meenakshi shares that unlike the Indian books and prints that have many grammatical errors, they found these books to have good language and methodology. “For instance, the stage-I books for two-and-half to three-year-old children, have a few words in a line; and stage-II books are well structured with short sentences,” she says.
The collection largely includes popular books from Enid Blyton, Aladdin, Snow White, and other Disney stories, to the Harry Potter series. For a subscription of `300 a month, up to three books can be borrowed at a time, for about `15 each. “There was an initial investment, and we weren’t looking to make a profit. But the word spread. Our children’s classmates and their parents showed most interest,” says Meenatchi. But there were many challenges too. The books would sometimes be returned in bad condition or with stains. And since it wasn’t a registered library, many would take them for granted and not return books. “I’m a bookworm myself. I treasure these books for children to read.
So it irked me when others weren’t careful about them,” shares Meenakshi. In a month, they used to circulate about 20-25 books. And till today a few regulars continue to borrow the popular ones and picture books that were always on demand. While they don’t plan on expanding the library, they are committed to keeping reading an active habit in their locality and among acquaintances. “There’s a direct link between reading habits and children’s development. I see it in my son too who comprehends things faster, and doesn’t struggle to frame sentences,” she says, adding that carefully curating a collection is as much a responsibility as encouraging a reading habit.
MEET AND GREET OVER CLASSICS
From book discussions to silent reading sessions, book clubs in the city have a gamut of tricks
up their sleeves to keep discerning bibliophiles more than just well read
At 6.30 every Saturday morning, Swetha Mohan greets familiar readers at the Tower Park in Anna Nagar. About 10 people, young and old, walk in to spend the next two hours in silence, engrossed in the books they brought along that week. It’s serene at the park, and one is allowed to get distracted and observe a laughing therapy group, people practicing yoga under the trees, or simply watch the morning birds while reading. After 8 am, the members of the silent-reading group begin discussing the book, and talk about their favourite bits.
Swetha, who runs the Little Love Library in Anna Nagar, started these sessions last year. She was inspired by the public reading sessions conducted at the beach by Broke Bibliophiles Chennai Chapter. She wanted to organise something closer home, and closer to nature. “In the beginning, about two people came, and the word soon spread. We have 10 people who regularly attend now, and it even includes a mother and her two children,” she says.
While Swetha’s reading sessions are theme based such as travel, mythology, environment, and more, there are other reading clubs in the city that discuss one book a month, or go by a genre. These include Broke Bibliophiles, Reading Raccoons, Bibliothek, and We Read Therefore We Are, who meet once a month and have active social media groups too. Sukumari of Bibliothek shares that they have a WhatsApp group with 60 members and about 15-20 of them regularly attend the meetings. “We brainstorm and pick books for discussion.
We meet once a month for two energy-filled hours,” she shares. The club is a part of IIT Madras’ alumni centre, and is open for anyone to join. Sukumari recalls that the best sessions were when they picked literary works from Australia, Latin America, Africa, Korea, and other non-European countries; and the sessions where they discussed Indian literature in translation. They make sure that the books they pick are easily available, and affordable for all. Some of them even exchange, pool in, and split the cost for books, so they don’t have to buy one every month. The idea behind Broke Bibliophiles Chennai Chapter is affordable reading, too. It started two years back, as an online group to discuss offers available on books, and soon turned into an offline book discussion club.
Solomon Manoj, who organises the Chennai Chapter meetings, shares, “We were 12 strangers who first met at a cafe in the city. The group soon grew, with 20-40 people who would come on the first Sunday of every month, and we meet at beaches and parks in the city. Personally, I love the recommendations that we get, like books by Vivek Shanbagh, William P Young, and others that came up during meetings,” says Solomon. Nanditha Sankar, who has been attending Broke Bibliophiles meetings since April last year, shares that while she was always an avid reader, she was hesitant to explore genres and unfamiliar authors, until then.
And she finds the activities at the end of every meeting quite interesting. “For instance, last time we were given printed covers of books, and we had to figure out the genre, author, and name of the book. I thought I was quite observant and well read, but was surprised that there was so much I didn’t know,” she says. The groups discuss both Tamil and English books, even though only two in five members are avid Tamil readers. Some of them, like Bibliothek and Broke Bibliophiles, even invite authors and publishers for discussions.
Sukumari shares that since people from all backgrounds are a part of the group, one can never predict what comes out of a discussion. “Most of them are students, working professionals, homemakers, and retired persons, with a literary bent of mind. While some discuss literary theories, some others, bring in a very commonsensical understanding of a text. So everyone usually finds their place in the discussion,” says Sukumari.
Stories that pop
Popular publishing houses and start-ups are using augmented reality for academic and story books
In May 2015, when Amar Chitra Katha associated with the augmented reality app Blippar India, the comic came to life on people’s smartphones. By simply moving a phone camera over the page, one could play a game with Suppandi, find the right chemical mix in a story about Dr Doggie, and even take selfies with characters they loved in the book. While nothing about the story itself was altered, the introduction of Tinkle as a ‘360-degree’ comic, opened up a myriad of possibilities for Indian writers, creators, and publishers. Tushar A Amin, co-founder of Smartivity, explains that a text can tell one only so much about a story.
Smartivity’s colouring and jigsaw books were some of the first AR products to hit bookstores in India in 2016. “We’ve been with the technology since its nascent stage. And because not many were aware of it then, we called our AR books ‘3D colouring sheets’ and ‘magic sheets’,” he says. One can scan magic sheets using an AR app, to see how a polar bear moves through the forest, where it stops to eat, or what its surrounding terrain is like. Tapping on any element on the sheet also pulls up more information about it. Vijay Karunakaran, founder, and CEO, Ingage Technologies, says that this kind of integration between virtual and real world is useful to help students understand concepts from science and math books. “For children especially, it’s important to observe content for immersive learning. And this is not true of both academic and story books,” Vijay says.
They support publications with AR technology and are currently working with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to introduce AR books in school. Vijay adds that the number of publishers making this switch is alone not a benchmark to see how AR is being adapted. “Bigger publishers are cautious because producing AR books in bulk is a lot of investment. And even though there’s a 30-40% increase in our awareness or interest in AR books, it’ll take us two more years to set a trend,” he shares. While other publishers like Seagull Books and PAN Macmilan brought out AR books for children much earlier, it was the rage that came with Pokemon Go’s release in July 2016, that got smaller publications and startups interested. Kidpreneurs, a start-up based in Chennai, for instance, plans to conduct AR book workshops for children.
“A child can tell us a story orally, and it will be transcribed as graphics in the AR format. Authorship of the story will remain with the child itself,” says Mahalakshmi Saravanan, founder, Kidpreneurs. She shares that the idea came to her while reading an explanation of the heart’s functioning in augmented reality. To her, this was a transformation from how books are thought of as printed texts. And what’s exciting is these are not just ‘AR versions’ of a text, but content created for the technology itself. “It also means more children will want to start reading, and an additional layer of information can be added and made exciting with immersive technology,” says Mahalakshmi.