news details |
|
|
| Musharraf's memoir bestseller in India | | The book has come to footpaths, literally | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV 24
A sensational piece of information: Pakistan President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf's book titled 'In The Line of Fire' is a bestseller in India. Indian official agencies are not unaware of this reality. "We have been told about the sensation the book has caused", a senior officer of the government of India said.
Gen. Musharraf's book is available across India as widely as J K Rowling's Harry Potter stories but in a trademark Indian way. Though its New York-based publisher, Simon and Schuster, priced it the same for both India and Pakistan, the book has come to footpaths, literally.
The publisher of "In The Line of Fire" did not take much time to make available the much-hyped and sought after publication to the man in the streets of Delhi where books are far less expensive and reading habits far greater than in neighbouring Pakistan. They simply pirated it. Tourists and Indians alike could now buy it for any price one can settle for.
An Indian journalist working for aHindi language newspaper bought the book for Rs 75 in Chennai. capital of Tamil Nadu. A tourist said that he got the pirated edition for Rs 200. The pirated version is being openly sold by newspaper hawkers. According to one study, students and common middle class Indians purchase the pirated edition from makeshift footpath stalls invariably in three mega cities - New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
The roadside hawkers demand Rs590 for the pirated edition and would sell the biography for any price above Rs50, depending upon the buyers' bargaining skills. "I can't tell you my purchase price of the pirated edition, but I just love selling it . . . if I sell three to four copies a day, I go home really happy", said Shakil Ahmad, a young boy, selling an assortment of books, magazines and eveningers at a Delhi traffic signal.
Though government of India as well as media came down hard on the book's contents, its popularity rose by every print and electronic media reference to the memoir. The Hindi edition of the book, which escaped a ban here for its references to Kargil, Kashmir and India has been doing "very good" at the roadside newsstands, say proprietors and hawkers. The Hindi translation of the book is priced Rs400, keeping in mind the Indian market conditions.
"The response to the high-profile memoir is far higher than I had expected . . . The book has attracted unprecedented attention of pirates as normally such political biographies, especially by a foreign leader, are not expected to do great business", said Ashok Mehta, a bookseller in central Delhi. He believed the Hindi edition too has been doing a good business.
The book, pirated one or otherwise, remains a hot commodity for an educated Indian as well as media. Since official figures for the book sale are not available, the controversy it has proliferated ever since its launch speaks for the attention the memoir has received.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
