Bibliofile

But it's not going to be so easy now for regional publishers, with Penguin deciding to jump into the regional trade. And flouting the market wisdom, Penguin is starting their Hindi publishing with a quartet of fiction titles. An overwhelming three out of the four titles will be Hindi translations of successful English titles: Khushwant Singh's Paradise and Other Stories (Jannat Aur Anya Kahaniyan), Anita Nair's Ladies' Coupe and Namita Gokhale's yet-to-be released Shakuntala: The Play of Memory. Only one of the four is an original Hindi anthology of short stories edited by Arun Prakash. Starting out with Hindi, Penguin plans to fan out into Marathi, Malayalam and eventually into every Indian language. Talk of reverse flow!

One of the best-kept secrets in the literary world must be sci-fi writer Jules Verne's special connection with India. Even the famous Captain Nemo is inspired by a post-Mutiny Nana Sahib. Verne's sympathy for the Indian freedom fight is patent in at least two of his books, according to researcher Swati Dasgupta who's been busy uncovering what the British obscured for over a hundred years.