TEN years years ago, a young man of 23 embarked on the risky business of book publishing in Oriya. Today, with above 120 titles to his credit, he is a pioneer and creator of a new era in the Oriya publishing scene. He is Saroj Bal, creative writer, magazine editor, photographer, publisher, visualiser and literary activist – all harmoniously rolled into one.
Time Pass, his publication house based in Bhubaneswar, has brought out books by several literary luminaries like Bibhuti Patnaik, Saubhagya Kumar Mishra, Haraprasad Das, Rajendra Kishore Panda, J.P Das, Ganeswar Mishra, Adhyapak Biswaranjan, Sadanand Tripathy and Ajay Swain. And he has been instrumental in discovering and nurturing a number of new talents in the field of literature who have carved a niche for themselves after being duly projected.
What made him click? Elegant-looking paperback editions at low price, creative cover designs, aggressive publicity drive with hoardings, advertisements, posters, brochures of books, use of web service and SMS for promos and finally book release ceremonies. “I try to combine creativity with commerce,” he hints and adds that publishing is more of a passion for him than a mere business.
“I prefer to work with digital medium that brings all the difference to my publications. After all, this is the age of technology and we must take full advantage of it”, says Saroj who has, so far, designed more than 300 book covers. Besides, he has also been working as a lay-out designer for several newspapers, magazines and souvenirs.
Trade and technology have not restricted his creative writings. Recipient of the State Youth Award for literature, Rabi Patnaik Memorial Award as the best short-story writer for the year (presented by Bhubaneswar Book Fair Committee) and Katha Nabaprativa Award (instituted by the Eastern Media Group) for fiction writing, Saroj has eight anthologies of poems, one novel and three collections of short stories. He was the editor of popular publications like Rebati and Galpa Patrika as well.
It’s a childhood passion for literature that prompted Saroj to go for a masters degree in Oriya at Utkal University. And his passion turned into a commitment for his own language, literature and culture later during his university days when he was editing the university’s magazine Vani Vikash. “I was quite sad that study of Oriya language and literature was looked down upon as an easy or inferior subject and the ultimate dream of almost all the bright students was to have a white collar job in future. I decided to do something to make the students of Oriya literature proud. The rest was destiny,” he confided.
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