NEW DELHI: “He pushed up against me, against my skirt..”
“And the kiss turned into something deep and secret..”
Not exactly the right reading material for small children. But they are the contents of a book given to the eight-year-old daughter and nephew of South Delhi-based doctor Dr Rakesh Kapur who had taken them to see “Jungle Book Jive”, a musical play for children held at Siri Fort Auditorium last week. He has filed a complaint against international publisher Groiler for distributing ‘adult’ books to kids. So far the Delhi Police has not filed a case.
“Inside Siri Fort Auditorium there was a stall of “Grolier” and a salesperson from the said company approached me and my daughter. He said that he would like to gift my daughter and nephew a book each, which would help in their learning and development.
As requested by them, I wrote down my address and mobile number along with names and ages of my daughter and nephew on a slip provided by the salesperson, who personally handed over a book wrapped in Grolier’s wrapping paper to my daughter and nephew,” Dr Kapur’s complaint said. When they opened the wrapping and started reading, it was a book on the adventures of a single woman living alone in the city, titled ‘Almost Single’.
“Also, at the same time, my nephew was glancing through a book called ‘Emergency room’ given by the Grolier salesperson, which seemed to be a book about drunk men creating havoc in emergency room of a hospital,” the complaint added.
The publisher’s lawyer Rajan Bajaj told The Sunday Standard that it was all a misunderstanding because the book was meant for waiting parents. “So far no other parent has raised concerns or returned the book,” he said. But Kapur has raised questions over the distributing such books even for parents at a kids’ event.
Grolier is an American educational publishing company with a significant presence in school libraries.