Monday, June 2, 2008

Books and their prices in India

We the software engineers of India.

The new age guys , we wear levis, listen to ipods all the time. 50 cents is what we like, Believe in reading Jeffrey Archer,

Also follow our own languages pretty well.

Some of us are actively supporting their mother languages.

Good, IT has really changed the way we think, but yes there is a growing trend of consumerism  in the middles class families too. WE don’t bother spending 10 rupees extra to get something better.

 

But when it comes to books we revert back to our own old styles. Buying it from the cheapest possible places ( some of the books are exorbitantly priced. I will not hate the books having some more pages of advertisements to make up for their prices, but average books coming at 500 + is something that I will not invest always.

Not all of us want to decorate our shelves. All we want is a good book that we have read. I don’t want a gold bound Atlas Shrugged , ( which I bought for 80 rs yesterday , in the airport road ) . Trust me I did not feel guilty about it.

 

I believe books should be made easier to procure. Not every body earns 50 K + so that he can shell out 2000 to 3000 a month on books. Not even they buy that often.

Either it is a problem with the mentality of the common man in India or else the prices are really exorbitant. I don’t fint he book enthusiasts buy books from Crosswords, Odyssey, Walden , lankmark any more. They would rather open up to some good library in the backyard ( which we seriously lack ) you wont believe the corruption that happens in these government institutions.  This is one aspect that needs to be revolutionized. My cousin in Canada told me about their community library which actually provides for multiple copies of many good books but there are few readers.

I felt hurt that day , she also sent me some of the pictures of computers with broad band connection for free use by the community ( back in 2001 )  the connection speeds were 256 kbps.

This has to change

 

 

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