September-October 2013 For limited circulation A JustBooks Publication
CONNECT
Volume 4 Issue 5 www.justbooksclc.com blog.justbooksclc.com
What Ails Indian Children’s Writing? Page 6 Author Profile
Page 7 Book Review
Page 12 Just Kids Payal Dhar
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aving browsed through books for the young in bookshops in Denmark and Sweden, I couldn’t help but notice that, while the adult sections were filled with local translations of well-known bestsellers from the English-speaking world, in the children’s section the shelves were simply bursting with home-grown literature. Starting with picture books and stories for beginning readers, going up to young adults, you could literally feast your eyes on a wide selection of excellently produced books, both fiction and non-fiction. Back home, the scene is vastly different. Books written in India by Indian writers for Indian children get the short shrift in a variety of ways. For one, they simply don’t look as delicious as the foreign fare on offer; for another, there are too few of them and these get washed away in the deluge from the West. Bookshop owners and librarians are guilty of not mak-
ing them visible enough. And finally, publishers appear rather indifferent about making a big deal of children’s books and authors. Oh, wait, there’s also that other allimportant question to tackle: is it that readers prefer not to pick up books by desi authors because — in the words of a writer and editor of children’s fiction — “They are crap”? Harsh? Perhaps. But both authors and publishers allude to this fact in one way or another. Roopa Pai, author of Taranauts, points out how Western books span “every kind of taste and reading and comprehension level”. She adds: “Each book is fabulously produced — great cover, great design, great illustrations, a whole slew of different themes, a variety of styles of writing of a very high quality, and excellently edited.” Something woefully lacking in their Indian counterparts, leaves them in the dust by the likes of Harry Potter, the Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson, Goosebumps, Captain Underpants, 39 Clues, Horrid Henry and Junie B.
Jones. Anushka R a v i s hankar, co-founder of Duckbill, observes, “Indian authors have tended to write didactic books, so kids are wary of [them].” Anita Roy, Commissioning Editor of Young Zubaan, calls it the “anxiety of authenticity” — Indian authors being stilted by the pressure of their “Indianness” — something that plagued adult writing in India a few decades ago. “[But today,] there’s a sense of self-confidence that we’re yet to see very much of when it comes to children and young adults’ literature,” she says. This makes the stories about foreign children from faraway lands, who eat strange food and go on wild adventures, something of an exotic experience, and coming home to pakoras for tea a dreary prospect.
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Connect
From the Editor’s Desk
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he first edition of JustBooks Connect came out on February 2010. Since then, it has been a wonderful journey, one in which JustBooks grew from a handful branches to 60+ branches. From a Bangalore-based library to being a pan-India library, from a physical library to become an online library as well. As they say all good things come to an end, so does this journey of ours. With a heavy heart we want to inform our members that this will be the last edition of JustBooks Connect. With JustBooks Connect, we wanted to connect with our members to talk about books, authors, literary events and hear them talk about their favourite literary things. Reporting the happenings in various JustBooks branches, knowing about their franchise owners happened to be a part of it as well. The fun thing, though, has been to receive and publish our young members’ creative poems and stories and see their excitement when they’re published! We hope our endeavours encouraged our young readers, not just to read but to write as well. After all, the future of books and reading lies with them. In the lead story of our final edition, we ask why Indian children feel reluctant to pick up books by Indian children’s writers while, at the same time they flock to read J. K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Garth Nix, Cornelia Funke, or Jeff Kinney. We also examine why this phenomenon is persistent and if anything can be done to change this perception of Indian books. We talk to a promising upcoming writer, Sudipto Das, whose debut book The Ekkos Clan has recently been released. Check the book in your library and make sure to read it. Then, we join in celebrating the 2nd anniversary of JustBooks Mysore. The Aug-Sep edition of Books & More magazine is available in all the JustBooks branches. Hope you have enjoyed reading JustBooks Connect through the years as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you. As always — happy reading.
September-October 2013 Continued from page 1 But if authors are to blame, so are publishers. Children’s publishing is not yet seen as an attractive enough market and the compromises on production values are obvious. Those dull, limp, uninspiringly designed books look even worse when placed next to their foreign counterparts that are not just far more creatively put together, but also rigorously edited and proofread. It is difficult to blame shopkeepers for hiding them away in a corner and easy to forgive a reader or parent for not giving them a second glance. In the bargain, what little good stuff there actually is also gets swept away into this ubiquitous quagmire classified as “Indian writing”. Sadly, however, adults often do impair children from developing a “healthy” reading habit. For instance, librarians and teachers acting as gatekeepers prevent rather than facilitate reading. Parents who are not readers themselves can be resistant to the idea of reading solely for the purpose of entertainment. “We always want our kids to be learning something,” laments Sayoni Basu, Duckbill’s other co-founder. “So, parents and friends will often buy kids the dullest books possible.” Of course, humans are creatures of habit. Thus, a concerted effort in helping kids step out of their comfort zones of Wimpy Kid and Horrid Henry is essential. Author Harini Gopalswami Srinivasan believes that we need to catch them young and expose them at an early age to a lot of Indian writing, Indian words used in English and so on. “Develop their palate before they get rigid in their views,” she says. “How else did we get to be interested in something so alien to us as regency romances?” Referring to British children’s author and editor Wendy Cooling’s statement that “We market children’s books like vegetables; we should be selling them like ice-cream,” Anita Roy says, “In India, it often feels like we’re marketing them not just like vegetables, but karela.” In India, children’s books are rarely
professionally appraised. It is also rather uncharitably treated in the media, and finds itself forever having to push and elbow its way into a tiny corner of the frame. “The lack of awards, of review spaces, of attention paid to Indian children’s books means that they sell in smaller numbers and the vicious cycle continues; because they sell in smaller numbers, no one pays them any attention,” says Basu. Contemporary children’s authors are hardly household names in India, as is the case in the West. Where, again, awards for children’s literature have a tremendous impact on sales and visibility. The Newberry Medal, Carnegie Medal, Smarties
Prize, Guardian Award, Bologna Ragazzi Award, and many others catapult books into the limelight and turn authors into stars. The fact is that authors, librarians and publishers admit that Indian books are not up to scratch. What does this mean? Aren’t these the very people who are responsible for the state of things? Admitting the problem is the first step to solving it. And fortunately, things are changing. There is a children’s book award and a children’s book festival now, and there is a lot of debate on how to push forward. “Give it 10 years,” says Pai, “Then we will all wonder what we were so distressed about 10 years ago.”
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September-October 2013
84, Charing Cross Road
Love Stories # 1 to 14
Helene Hanff
Annie Zaidi
Penguin
HarperCollins
Reshmi Chakaraborty
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Veena Pradeep
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his book is a collation of two decades of correspondence between American writer Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, the main buyer at Marks & Co., antiquarian booksellers in London. It begins on October 5, 1949, with Hanff’s enquiry about secondhand books. Although their letters are mostly about the books being ordered and sent, a friendship develops between them, with each getting a glimpse into the other’s life. The correspondence comes to an end in 1968, with the sudden death of Doel. Hanff learns of it belatedly, and writes 84, Charing Cross Road as an in memoriam.
hile the reader may be misled by the title into thinking so, the stories in this book are definitely not runof-the-mill romances. In fact, you’ll encounter very few happy endings and happily-ever-after scenarios in the collection. What you will find are hidden nuances, unconventional explorations, and unexplored territories of that emotion called love. Since none of the characters in these stories have names, and are referred to at all times as he or she, there is a universality about their personalities, enabling readers to identify themselves with most of them, despite the strangeness of their circumstances.
High Fidelity
The Sense of an Ending
Nick Hornby
Julian Barnes
Penguin
Vintage
Anand Vijayasimha
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ornby has, indeed, very skillfully encapsulated a great chunk of a modern male’s life in High Fidelity. He shows us, through emotionally strained 34-year-old Rob Gordon, who owns and runs a dying record store with his two socially rejected assistants, how music is used as a life lesson. How it can help find solace, enable poetic expression and even serve as a memory jar. The narrative is the icing on the cake. It’s broken, in and out of context and blends together perfectly with the storyline. The texture of this book is like a vinyl LP — raw, scratchy, uncompressed, beautiful and fully analog.
Anjana Balakrishnan
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inner of the Man Booker Prize in 2011, The Sense of an Ending is Julian Barnes’ eleventh work of fiction. While it is possible to look at this 150-page novel as a retired man’s musings of his past to unravel the details of his friend’s death, it’s also a treatise on the mysteries of understanding suicide and the games memory and time play. Barnes is brilliant with the intricacies of thought, though one wishes the plot development could have been smoother, with a more even treatment of time. Also, the plot often finds itself treated like a suspense thriller, the outcome of which, I dare say, is rather a suspect.
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September-October 2013
Drama set in Bangalore
A City Girl Comes of Age Noor’s 12-year-old brother Roshan, a sharp, perceptive lad and a good cook who asks Rupa her uncomfortable questions Pushpa Achanta sometimes but assists her whenact and fiction seem to have a lot ever need be. in common, sometimes probably It would not because the former provides fodbe an exaggerader for the latter. Therefore, even a story tion to say that categorized as fiction reminds one of rethe short trainality whether it is a film, book, painting ing programme or any other form of creative expression. has a long term The similarities become fairly obvious impact on the Noor’s life. For it not only especially when they resemble events or helps her realize her long standing dream aspects that have a relevance to the life of of putting a film script together but also the author of the tale. This is perhaps the brings her in contact with Daanish Aslam, case with Blinkers Off, a fast paced book a talented and genial 28-year old who whose protagonist appears to have been lives and teaches at the New York Film inspired, at least in parts, by her creator Academy. Incidentally, Noor assumes Andaleeb Wajid. This is Wajid’s second that Daanish is the boyfriend of Supriya, book. her arrogant and pretty classmate from The plot revolves around Noor, a deterkindergarten onwards, who refers to him mined 20-year old studying in her final as Dennis (as he prefers to be called) and year in a college in Bangalore. She conNoor as Knorr. vinces her parents that she will attend a Although she tries hard, Noor cannot three month course in film making durstop herself from liking Daanish. To her ing the weekends. In addition to her parpleasant surprise, Daanish also reciproents, there are two others who matter to cates the feelings. When she falls ill, he conveys his feelings for her by fetching his doctor While some people might classify this friend, calling her tome as chick lit, one must commend over the phone and Wajid for her ability to keep the sending her text messages. Apart readers engaged with simple yet from giving her interesting twists in the story line... tips on using the camera, Daanish helps Noor and her team to develop their idea of producing Noor. One of them is Ashmita, her closa film that is centered around a wedding. est friend and confidante, who helps her He also introduces them to the family of remain grounded in reality. The other is his friend Imran whose sister Heeba is to
Blinkers Off By Andaleeb Wajid
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be married. Although she is uncomfortable in the household of the wedding party initially and even considers withdrawing the idea, Noor displays a lot of maturity in dealing with the unexpected. For instance, the situation in which Heeba tells her that she is pregnant with the child of Naushad, the man that she is about to marry or the time when she and the director Nandita have to pull their team together. While some people might classify this tome as chick lit, one must commend Wajid for her ability to keep the readers engaged with simple yet interesting twists in the story line, blending lighthearted moments into the narrative naturally and, above all, ensuring that Noor does not lose her identity or independence of thought while trying to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. This would appeal to young women in contemporary urban India who are trying to maintain their individualistic outlook and fulfill their aspirations but trying to conform to expectations laid out by their families. And setting the story in present-day Bangalore adds to the realism of the plot. Overall, this is a fast paced narrative, which one could term as an easy or comfortable read, by an emerging author who is likely to be popular with the youth.
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September-October 2013 Exploring moral dilemmas
An Almost Engrossing Read Inferno Dan Brown Random House Reshmi Chakraborty
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nferno is a patch better than Brown’s previous book The Lost Symbol, though by now you know exactly what to expect in a Dan Brown production. This time, Brown is determined to make the world sit up and take note of Dante Alighieri and his 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy. The title Inferno is a nod to the first part of the poem that describes Dante’s journey through hell. After The Vatican, Holy Grail, L’ouvre and Freemasons, Brown should take credit for reviving tourist interest in Florence and Istanbul. In fact, according to news reports, tourists are already flocking to Florence to see Dante’s Death Mask, which makes a crucial appearance in the book. Dan Brown’s protagonist is the suave Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist with memory that can open secret doorways across the world and legs that outrun the quickest of pursuers as he races along cinematically appropriate locations like Florence, Venice and Istanbul. True to form, he has with him an alluring yet somewhat mysterious woman. In this book, it’s Sienna Brooks, a child prodigy with reason enough to hide her past. Inferno begins with Robert Langdon waking up in a hospital with no recollection of how he reached there. Ordinary patients stare blankly at hospital walls but Langdon being who he is, spots the contours of a building (Palazzo Vecchio) from his hospital window and figures out he’s in Florence. A few seconds later he and the pretty Miss Brooks have to escape a hired assassin, and the race begins. Once they
are safe, Langdon finds a mysterious cylinder, marked with a biohazard symbol, sewed inside his coat’s lining and is on instant alert as it opens to reveal a high definition image — Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s Map of Hell. Finally, to the point? Yes, but not before Langdon has had the chance to gaze at the Florence skyline and admire the Il Duomo basilica; googled himself on a readily available laptop and found all that there was to about Sienna Brooks through strategically kept playbills and newspaper cuttings on her desk. He also has leisure enough for ruminations on theatrical masks, Italian loafers and, of course, the inevitable Harris Tweed jacket. All this while Langdon is assailed by images of hell and a silver haired woman appealing to him for help. Yes, Dan Brown loves taking his time getting to the point in this one. Langdon now goes on a very predictable chase the puzzle route (suitably touristy with just the right touch of old-world intrigue) complete with indecipherable paintings and maps, impossible escapes, secret passageways and athletic feats by a wounded Langdon that would make any Olympian proud. He also visits several artworks along the way and gives us a lesson in them through his conversion with Sienna and his inner monologues. This is a plot structure that has worked for previous Dan Brown books. However
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in Inferno, it halts the pace of what could have been a thriller that was uncommon, given that it has a villain who presents a situation that has both a moral and human angle. The villain leaves behind a video of the evil he wishes to spread and the clues are located in Dante’s Inferno, which is how Brown ties up the book to the famous text. With the World Health Organization, bio-terrorism, transhumanism and visions of Dante’s version of hell, there are enough placeholders in this book to keep you guessing and reading till the end, one way or the other. The ‘evil’ situation the villain places the world in, actually offers an interesting debate from a moral angle and the descriptions of some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are engrossing. Unfortunately, none of these come together to make this a ‘can’t-get-up-till-Ifinish-this-book’ kind of narrative. Now let’s see if Hollywood, which is apparently turning this into a movie, could do one better.
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September-October 2013
Author Profile
William Dalrymple Dipti Nair
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t was in 2007 – the second edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, which was still a year or two away from becoming “the greatest literary show on earth”, when I was at the JLF and there was no escaping William Dalrymple, one of the co-founders and co-directors of the annual JLF. He was omnipnresent – at the sessions, press conferences, the evening events, during lunches and the dinners. It was obvious who the host of the party was. But that didn’t add to my first impression of the writer and historian. It was a given. After all, just a few months ago, his sixth book, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857, had been released. A lot had been written lauding him for the extensive research he had conducted on the subject and how he had managed to lay hands on the dustcovered “Mutiny Papers”, which included previously ignored Indian accounts of the events of 1857. The book was officially being launched at the festival with Dalrymple reading from the book. It was a fantastic performance. It was here that I had a lasting impression of him. In December 2012, Dalrymple’s book, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, was released. I met him again during his Bangalore tour to launch his book, and he did not disappoint the packed hall with his reading from it.
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t was the 2011 faceoff with Open magazine that released a can of worms. Among other things, Dalrymple was described as “the pompous arbiter of literary merit in India” and the JLF as “literary tourism, with Dalrymple nothing more than the principal tour guide for writers arriving in India.” Dalrymple said he was being targeted because of his white skin, and responded with an open letter published in the same magazine. When Dalrymple first came to India more than 25 years ago and discovered Delhi “…the city ... possessed a bottom-
William Dalrymple, born on 20th March 1965 in Scotland, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge as a History scholar. He started out as a travel writer at the age of 22 with his book, In Xanadu, where he traced the journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Mongolia. All his books have won prestigious awards. He has also written and presented three television series on India. Apart from co-founding the Jaipur Literature Festival, Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is a. He is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the Guardian, the TLS, and the New York Review of Books, and is the India correspondent of the New Statesman. Dalrymple lives on a farm outside Delhi, with his artist wife Olivia Fraser and their three children.
less seam of stories: tales receding far beyond history, deep into the cavernous chambers of myth and legend,” he wrote in City of Djinns (1994) which chronicles his love affair with the capital. And it’s from this bottomless cauldron that Dalrymple has fished out enthralling and engaging stories, first of travel and then of history. “In my head travel and history are very closely linked. My travel books are full of history and my history books are full of places,” he says about his two genres of writings. Though he started out as an award-winning travel writer, Dalrymple soon found his groove in writing narrative history that gave us such seminal works as The White Mughal (2002), The Last Mughal, Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (2009) and Return of the King. Each of these books has hours and hours of dedicated research behind it.
“The fun is in the detective work,” he says. This has led him to untouched and ignored archives and “hundreds of tattered letters and blood-soaked diaries” waiting for their stories to be told. He mined virtually most of the archives and records in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan for Return of the King. But for all this, Dalrymple believes that more than his books, it’s the JLF that he considers his real contribution. “I believe the festival has changed the way literature is viewed and accessed in this country,” he says. Judging by the number of similar festivals JLF has spawned, his statement may well be true.
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September-October 2013 An engrossing read
Unravelling the Mystery of Existence Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story By Jim Holt Liveright Aman Anand
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oltaire once observed that we should judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. If we measure Jim Holt’s Why Does the World Exist? against such a criterion, then the author is one of the more important contemporary thinkers. For the central question of his excellent book is not its title, which we must assume was forced upon him by publishers to ensure it sold a few extra copies. No, the main question that his book explores is, why is there something rather than nothing? The delicate phrasing of the question allows it to avoid accusation of siding with either believers or atheists, which in turn allows it to explore the numerous ideas and theories that have been developed to try and answer this question. The subtitle of the book is An Existential Detective Story, which is far more apt than the book’s actual title, as Holt very much adopts the approach of a good detective, interested only in uncovering the evidence and hearing the various competing stories of the existential witnesses rather than prejudging their arguments. This alone makes it a more compelling read than Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great, both of which attempt one to answer the rather loaded question, “Does God exist?” with a resounding no. Jim Holt is a long-time contributor to The New Yorker, where he has written about topics like string theory, infinity and time, all of which are relevant to this particular book. Perhaps even more impressive than his asking of the right question is the narrative device he uses to ensure the reader
never gets lost among the myriad of ideas throughout the book. Holt makes his journey a personal one. So, before we are introduced to the ideas of Hegel, we find Holt sitting at a table in Cafe de Flore in Paris, or recounting his failed trip to Austin, Texas, to meet the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg to discuss the Theory of Everything, only to have to return to his home in New York before meeting Weinberg because his dog Renzo is gravely ill. Not only does his personal journey anchor the abstraction of the ideas explored in the personal, but Holt ends up becoming our Dante. But rather than having Homer guide him through the various circles of Hell, Holt has philosophers, scientists and writers guide him through the mystery of existence, ensuring the reader never gets lost, no matter how difficult some of the ideas prove to be. Holt is also gifted with an intuitive grasp of when a difficult concept needs to be explained in layman’s terms. For example, when discussing the concept of quantum uncertainty and what it forbids, Holt provides the reader with the useful analogy, “that’s like saying you can’t know the exact price of a stock and how quickly it’s changing”. Too often, we are given the impression that the most important philosophical discussions took place in Athens 2000 or so years ago. Holt’s most significant achievement is highlighting the fact that there are numerous groundbreaking discussions taking place within the discipline at this very moment, as the numerous advancements in physics challenge philosophy to incorporate its discoveries. Holt is a shrewd interviewer who man-
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ages to coax persistently thought-provoking observations from these respected thinkers. However, Why Does The World Exist? is not a random collection of arguments and anecdotes about existence from thinkers old and new. The question why is there something rather than nothing, allows Holt to structure a journey and argument that takes the reader through a cleverly crafted series of ideas, concluding with two endings, one philosophical and one personal. Both endings are powerful in their own right, with both giving the sense that the book is intended to be the start of a conversation about the main question posed rather than attempting to develop an unsatisfying, forced conclusion. In the process of this conversation, Holt relishes in examining a vast compendium of ideas in a fairly short work. Why Does The World Exist? is one of the most quietly ambitious non-fiction books of recent times which successfully pulls off its numerous goals and deserves to be read by anyone with more than a passing interest in the nature of our universe.
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September-October 2013
Reader’s contribution
Reader’s Voice
A Tale of Tangled Relationships Curses in Ivory By Anjana Basu HarperCollins Barnali Roy
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n her novel, Curses in Ivory, Anjana Basu weaves a riveting tale about the complex lives of five women who are bound together by ties of blood and relation. The novel impresses the reader with its remarkable storyline, as well as the lyrical manner of story-telling. One is instantly drawn in after reading a few pages. It’s a story of struggle and success, of guilt and redemption, of bondage and liberation. At the heart is the confused-yet-headstrong protagonist Sreya, a girl brash but vulnerable at the same time. It is through her that the story unfolds, starting with the demise of Regina, her illtempered mother. The book traces Sreya’s struggle with her memories of a troubled past, through the stories of Hansabati, her
grandmother, Regina, Queenie, her aunt, and Brishti, her uncle’s wife. All these women have suffered male domination and intolerance, and are victims of fate. However, the resilience and determination of these women to deal with life on their own terms shines through. A victim of her mother’s flaming temper and her father’s indifference, Sreya grows up with unpleasant memories. She blames her mother for driving away her father. Later, her own married life cannot adjust to her mother’s growing affection for her husband, and she drifts away from her husband. Throughout the book we see her consumed by guilt for having broken her marriage. Ultimately her salvation lies in redeeming the memories of another woman. The narration moves seamlessly forward and backward in time. Basu’s eloquent characterization brings to life the portraits of not only the major characters, but also minor ones. Her description of early twentieth century Bengal and its decadent customs brings out the paradox of the progressive Bengali. While depicting winter in Calcutta, the writer remarks, “It was there in the wings of the big brown moths fluttering indoors to roost…” The first fluttering of love comes through as “a glance fluttering across a room like a brown moth...” Brishti writes poetry “about twilight and longing without understanding what they meant...” The rich prose builds up the complexity of the story. Curses in Ivory is a welcome addition to the treasure of literature by Indian women writers. Rooted in ethnicity yet independent in their outlook, the characters echo in today’s Indian women. The novel is a must-read for all book lovers for the beauty of its prose and its exquisitely drawn characters.
Barnali Roy, a member of JustBooks Salt Lake City Kolkatta, is an MA in English, and a professional diploma holder in HRD. Presently she is teaching HRM and English Communication to management students.
When I was in college, I was a member of many circulating libraries including the government library in Mysore. At that point I always used to dream of a cool, sophisticated library with branches all over the world. My dream came true last year when I accidentally happen to see JustBooks in Kuvempunagar. When I entered the branch I was amazed at the collection of the books in the library, it was very neat, organized and had a corporate feel to it. Renting and returning the books was so easy. Last year I stayed in Bangalore and, with JustBooks now having branches all over India, it was easy for me to read and return the books in the branch closest to me. However, I prefer my home branch at Kuvempunagar compared to the other branches because the staff and manager are great, friendly and very helpful. I highly recommend JustBooks to anyone who loves to read or wants to read. Rakesh Kashyap Kuvempunagar, Mysore
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September-October 2013 Reader’s contribution
The Writer’s Guide to Writing
The Art of Fiction - A guide for Writers and Readers By Ayn Rand Plume Jahnavi Chintakunta
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o you want to write a fiction novel? Curious to know the intricacies of some of the finest fiction work ever created? Ever wondered what goes through a writer’s mind when she or he creates a suspense thriller? The Art of Fiction presents answers to all these questions in a unique and interesting manner. This book is a compilation of transcripts of an informal course conducted on art of fiction in 1958 by Ayn Rand — the legendary author of The
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and one of my favorite authors. Most of us think that writing is an innate talent and only those who are gifted with that special talent are equipped to create great work. But Ayn Rand shatters this thought by saying that writing, like most other arts, can be learnt and thereafter demystifies the process of creating fiction stories using a step by step approach. It is intriguing to know that indeed there are specific techniques in acquiring and fine tuning the art of writing and by combining sheer effort with the techniques provided in the book one can master the art. This sort of clear-cut approach serves as a guidepost especially for young writers who would have started out on their literary work haphazardly. The first chapter in this book, “Writing and the Subconscious”, lays the necessary foundation for the rest of the chapters present in the book. This chapter explains that it not some unknown mysterious “inspiration” that drives the writing but it is in fact the subconscious mind which comes into play when a writer starts out his/her work. Ayn Rand rationalizes that like a computer which just reproduces whatever information it is fed with, our subconscious mind also replays the thoughts and values which we feed into our mind. This chapter concludes that the information in our subconscious mind can be tuned and refined by consciously acquiring the knowledge needed for our literary work. The following chapters provide guidance on those literary aspects that a writer should consciously focus on. Each of the chapters thereafter is dedicated to a particular element of fiction such as theme, plot, characterization,
style, climax, etc. How to chose a theme, what is needed to make a plot gripping, what sort of characterization is required, how to hold the reader’s interest till the climax and effective ways of presenting the story are described in detail. Several guidelines are presented on when to present the story in a narrative format and when to choose a dialogue format. There are guidelines for what sort of humor is acceptable without demeaning the values held by writer and how to make transitions between various scenes without losing the reader’s attention. Unlike other step-by-step guides, which just impart theoretical knowledge and leave the reader bored, what makes this book interesting is that it provides elaborate examples for each fictional element by specifying what to do and what not to do. Excerpts from Ayn Rand’s fiction work, along with various other books written by writers such as Victor Hugo, Thomas Wolfe, are provided with a detailed analysis on what made that particular work interesting or what was lacking. This analytical approach helps the reader to thoroughly understand the techniques mentioned in this book. Overall, this book is a must for everyone who wants to learn the art of writing and for every reader who is curious to understand the details of what goes into a great work of fiction. Excerpts from Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, We the Living, Anthem, are provided throughout the book so a reader will be able to appreciate the information better if she or he has read these novels. As with all other Aynd Rand’s works that have endured the test of time, this book too holds good even today to serve as a guidepost for all the aspiring writers.
Jahnavi Chintakunta, a member of JustBooks Kukatpalli, Hyderabad, is a software professional working f0r Infosys.
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September-October 2013
Poetry of the heart: Book reading at JustBooks Kochi
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omeone once said, “Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.” That seems to be absolutely true of Dr Sreelatha Chakravarty’s book, An Eternal Romantic (Leadstart Publishing, 2012). The author and poet was at JustBooks Kochi branch to read from her book. The story of a schizophrenic woman, An Eternal Romance, follows an unusual structure — parts of it are poetry and parts are prose, but it does make for great reading. Pick it up for a good weekend read from your nearest JustBooks branch.
From the JustBooks blog: blog.justbooksclc.com
JustBooks Top 5 New Arrivals Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Ekkos Clan by Sudipto Das The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J K Rowling) Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik Creative Intelligence by Bruce Nussbaum
Recommended 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The Messenger Of Athens by Anne Zouroudi Real Men Don’t Pick Primroses by Srish Rao Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink Taming The Infinite: The Story Of Mathematics by Ian Stewart Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert
Rentals 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Inferno by Dan Brown Diary Of A Wimpy Kid:The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney The Oath Of The Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi Diary Of A Wimpy Kid:Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney Best Kept Secret by Jeffrey Archer
1. Scholastic India’s new endeavor for Young Adults is: a. Nova b. Duckbill c. Puffin 2. Who founded Children’s Book Trust (CBT)? a. Ritu Menon b. Anant Pai c. K Shankar Pillai 3. Name the Indian Children’s Book award: a. Crossword Children’s Award b. Newberry Medal c. Smarties Prize 4. This is a series of adventures for children by Indian writers: a. Taranauts b. Aditi’s Adventures c. Both 5. What’s the name of India’s festival of children’s literature? a. Siyahi b. Bookaroo c. Mountain Echoes
Answers - Nova, K Shankar Pillai, Crossword Children’s Award, Both, Bookaroo
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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September-October 2013 Book Talk
A Layered Mystery Novel J
ustBooks’ mission is to connect every reader to his/her book and every book to a reader. Booktalk is our attempt in that direction, where we talk about upcoming writers and their debut book and connect them to our readers. Here we talk about Sudipto Das and his debut book The Ekkos Clan. The Ekkos Clan is the story of Kratu’s search for the killers of his family, his own roots and the mystery behind his grandmother’s stories. It’s the fascinating account of Kubha and the basketful of folklore she inherited from her ancestors. The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters —
Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford who happens to be Kubha’s grandson, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist. Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales — they contain rich linguistic fossils and layered history. In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle were not as lucky. It’s revealed that there have been several attempts to eradicate the entire family of Kubha in the past seventy five years, but every time someone survived miraculously. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed forever? Who wants to kill Kubha’s family and wipe out all traces of her stories? Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories. At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world, the first book written by mankind and Indian Music. The novel will appeal to readers interested in Indian history, music and etymology and history of languages. With shades of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, this mystery novel is well-paced and layered. About the Writer Sudipto Das is an Engineer by profession. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur and has been living in Bangalore since 1997. He works as the
VP of Engineering with a design-service company in the semiconductor industry. Music, writing and travelling are his main passions. He is a member of a music band called Kohal, which is the name of a very rare Raga in Hindustani Classical Music. Kohal sounds like kolahol, which means cacophony in Bengali. The band takes pride in saying that they don’t charge to play, rather they pay to play. He started thinking about this book in 2008 when he took a break in his career for a few months. The seed thought of the book came from his grandmother. Over the years the life story of his grandmother, who had passed away when Das was thirteen, kept intriguing him, till he finally decided to write this book. Growing up in Kolkata, he spent most of his afternoons with a widowed aunt after he returned from school. She and another aunt, who was a neighbour, would keep Das entertained with stories from Bangladesh, the place they always referred to as their country. Only when Das started writing this book did he realize that he remembered every detail of all the stories they had told him some thirty years ago. Apart from Bangladesh, which features in Das’s book, ancient Indian history has always fascinated him. He has attempted, with good effort, to weave a mystery novel that dealt with all the subjects which have fascinated him so long.
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September-October 2013
Just Kids
Not the Same Old Knight-’N-Dragon Tale The Knight and the Dragon Stories and Pictures by Tomie DePaola Puffin Vaishali Shroff
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omie DePaola’s The Knight and the Dragon is a charming yet comical story about a timid knight and a cute dragon. Once upon a time, there was a knight in a castle who had never fought a dragon. And in a cave not too far away was a dragon who had never fought a knight.
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Thus begins the story, which means that it’s about time they fought each other. In medieval Europe, dragons were a symbol of everything evil. Fighting them was an act of bravery, and that’s how knights proved their worth to charm princesses. The book sets the stage by showing a naïve knight staring at you from a castle window and a dragon trying to look fierce from a cave. The images are trying to tell you that they are getting into a battle
only because they have to, not because they want to — culture and society expect them to fight. From reading books on how to fight to systematic planning, and from gathering resources to staging dummy fights, they do everything to get ready for the D-day. But what happens in the end is just what you would never expect from a knight or a dragon. In a hilarious, light-hearted and colourful way, DePaola captures the earnestness with which the knight and the dragon learn how to fight, only to realise that their skills could be best used for something more constructive. The knight is skilled at building armour and weapons, and the dragon is bestowed with powers to spit fire. Realising that fighting is not their cup of tea, they decide to use their skills to open a barbecue restaurant. The knight builds the BBQ by recycling his armour, and the dragon turns chef. Who could have imagined that! It’s characteristic of DePaola, who has published over 200 books in the last 40 years, to feature a large part of his stories wordlessly through pictures — a series
of images that allow the readers to interpret and construct the story in their own words, thus encouraging their creativity and imagination and boosting their vocabulary. His artwork is vivid and shows how the story builds, picture by picture, page by page. Originally published in 1980 by GB Putnam’s Sons, this is a masterpiece that has rightfully been A Booklist Editors’ Choice and an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists. This book has everything that you’d imagine a children’s book to be — a great story with bold, colourful and speak-forthemselves illustrations, crisp text, lovable characters, and above all, many life lessons that one would take a lifetime to learn.
JustBooks’ Picks for Young Readers The Lion’s Paw by Jane Werner Watson Lenny and Tweek, Wanted: A Friend by Klaus Baumgart The Sacred Banana Leaf by Nathan Kumar Scott, illustrated by Radhashyam Raut
The Bird With Golden Wings by Sudha Murty, illustrated by Ajanta Guhathakurta
Advaita The Writer by Ken Spillman
Spinning Yarns: The Best Children’s Stories From India by Deepa Agarwal
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
The Deadly Royal Recipe by Ranjit Lal
Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
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September-October 2013
Just Kids Our World This, is our world! This, is our world! This is our world with tears and fears This is our world with rights and fights This is our world with frowns and crowns This is our world with kings and wings Oh, Oh, Oh! This is the world The world, world, world The world which we found has got all round Lets use a crane instead of a train Whatever we get in this world, we should respect it like a pearl. When the rain comes down, the planes go up. The night is our beauty and the world is our duty If we throw our cans on the ground, then how will the world stay on its bounds. So I tell you that your one mistake, can put all of us at stake! Arth Agrawal 4th Standard Vibgyor High, Pune.
Arth is a member of JustBooks Viman Nagar, Pune. He loves to watch Baalveer and Maharana Pratap. His loves cricket though he wants to become a chef when he grows up.
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The Wonder of Being Different Wonder by R J Palacio Random House
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onder is a book about August, who is not like any other boy. Yes, he does plays video games, eats ice cream and also rides his bike but ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away or they don’t get stared at. August is a boy whose face is not like other boys. It is very different. He is a silent boy until he joins school where he gets many new friends like Summer and Jack. Some of his classmates are good to him and some are bad. They all start something called ‘the plague’ where anyone who touches August has to wash his or her hands. But August is a good stu-
dent and he gets popular at school, over time. An incident occurs when his class goes to a three day trip to a nature reserve, where Jack and he are bullied by a few older kids. August stands up and speaks very boldly to them but is pushed back. Just at that moment, August’s classmates, Amos and his friends, who don’t like August, come and surprisingly defend them from the bullies. The next day, everyone starts calling August a hero for standing up to the bullies. I like this book a lot. The character I liked the most is Olivia, August’s older sister, because she is the one who encourages him to go to school when he decides to quit it. The book teaches us that it does not matter how you look like, what matters is how you are on the inside.
Neha Deshpande 7th Standard Pawar Public School, Pune. Neha, a member of JustBooks Magarpatta, Pune, is a voracious reader. She can read a 200 page book in a day. Books are her true friends as they have given her joy.
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September-October 2013
Interview with a Franchisee
Bibliophile Library Owners
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wo bibliophiles-turned-entrepreneurs, Ms. Deepti Arora and Ms. Sheela Naik, started the JustBooks Vijaya Bank Layout branch. Over time, they expanded to start one in Dollars Colony, JP Nagar and then Honeywell-Kalyani. We talk with them about their journey. Tell us about yourself and your family. We moved from Mumbai to Bangalore almost a decade back. Our husbands are IT professionals. Deepti has two kids and stays in J.P Nagar. Sheela, too, has 2 kids and stays in Koramangla.
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Why and how did this franchise option happen? We were toying with the idea of starting our own business for some time. Call it destiny or a coincidence but the person who was planning to set up the Vijaya Bank Layout branch suddenly withdrew due to financial challenges, and we got the opportunity to take this further. Both of us love books and reading is a passion, so it made sense to align with a business which is close to our heart. We started with Vijaya Bank Layout branch in September 2010 and later expanded to open branches at Dollars Colony, JP Nagar and Honeywell-Kalyani. Tell us about your experience on starting and taking care of this franchise. We loved the experience of building the library, selecting the books from the warehouse and learning the ropes by doing a walkthrough of the processes. Since both of us don’t have a technological background, we were initially challenged by technical issues but, with Strata’s help, sailed through them. It has been nearly 3 years, and I would say that we have loved every moment
(L to R) Sheela, Deepti, Vishal dressed as Santa and Saisha (Deepti’s daughter). of it. Having said this, employee retention has been a constant challenge for us. How have members responded to your library? Initial customer response was tremendous and we had a linear growth chart for subscribers. As the demand plateaued, we had to get innovative to keep existing members excited and attract new members. We did promotions like a Christmas party, nursery-kindergarten school trips to the library, creative story telling workshops, hosted a Ranga Shankara event, etc. These helped to create a buzz in the neighbourhood. What do you think will be a great value added service to your existing members? Increasing the variety of books, providing sufficient copies of new releases, quicker availability of requested books from other branches and introducing e-books. How much of your time do you spend at the JustBooks outlet personally? How rewarding is the experience of interacting with your members? We spend a fair amount of time in the outlet. Most of the time goes in interacting with members, training our employees and routine upkeep of the library. Interacting with members is an essential part of the job, since they are the heart and soul of the business and personal interaction helps us in understanding their needs and issues, which helps us to do a better job. Most customers do not go through the terms and conditions and hence we do face challenges when customers approach us with unreasonable demands such as for waivers. What kind of books do you read? Who are your favourite authors? Deepti: I have always been a voracious reader and have read all kinds of books ranging from M&B and thrillers to autobiographies and spiritual books. My all-time favourite authors are Ayn Rand, Ashok Banker and Julia Quinn. Sheela: I read all types of fiction books, some of my favourite authors are Danielle Steel, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Sidney Sheldon.
Members of JustBooks Vijaya Bank Layout at an event conducted in the library.
What is your advice to book lovers who would like to turn entrepreneurs through JustBooks? For us, the best part of running a branch of JustBooks’ is being introduced to so many books and authors that we were not aware of before and interacting with diverse members who come with different perspectives. So if reading is your passion and you love to be surrounded by books and mingling with people, then becoming a franchisee is a good option to explore.
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September-October 2013 Events
JustBooks Mysore Celebrates J
ustBooks Kalidasa Road branch was started in Mysore on April 10th, 2010 and JustBooks Kuvempunagar was started on 14th Aug 2011. With one branch completing 3 successful years and the other 2 years, JustBooks’ Mysore has much to celebrate and has added door delivery facility for the residents of Mandya and Nanjangud. “I was in the process of setting up two JustBooks outlets in Bangalore, but my love for Mysore took them away. I am glad I am able to add on to the cultural heritage of Mysore by setting up two good libraries for all age groups. Starting a library is only the first step. There is a need to educate the school and college generation about the importance of reading,” opines Kumar Kanuga, the franchise owner of JustBooks Mysore. “Before joining JustBooks, I used to purchase books but now it is more than a year since I have bought anything. Interestingly, in the past one year, I have read more number of books than ever before. JustBooks is one of the best things that has happened to Mysore. The library is well-maintained and the staff is always courteous and eager to assist,” says Veena Nagaraj, a member for the past one and a half years.
Love for books is gradually growing in this laid back town of Mysore, courtesy these two libraries. “The main feature of this wonderful library is the facility to return and issue books at various branches, which I have used extensively during my travels. Before joining JustBooks, I used to purchase books but I rarely buy any now,” says V Lakshminarasimman, a regular at the library. JustBooks Mysore regularly conducts authors meet, workshops on speed reading, interactive sessions on developing reading habits amongst the children, young adults and even adults, summer camps, workshops for school teachers to emphasize on reading as a requirement rather than a hobby. Emcee Pallavi has been volunteering to conduct educational games in these libraries. Recently a reading program for the employees of Infosys was conducted. “Mysore has always been an educational hub, but reading is not one of the preferred pastimes among Mysoreans. Com-
bine this with their spending patterns and you will find that a library membership ranks low on their expense list. However, as the importance of reading dawns on them, Mysoreans are now beginning to explore the good feeling of empowerment which only knowledge can give them,” adds Poornima V. Kumar, manager of these libraries. Poornima is a speech language pathologist and a soft skills trainer who has opted to promote reading and books. Wishing many more successful years to JustBooks Mysore. Stay in touch for more information on events and offers through their Facebook page: facebook. com/JustBooksMysore .
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September-October 2013
Events
Kathalaya at JustBooks Rajajinagar
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istening to stories is fun at any stage in our life but sadly storytelling has become an idea of past and, with children living in nuclear families, with busy parents family time has become precious. So it was a pleasant surprise to get an overwhelming response to the storytelling session held by Kathalaya group at Justbooks Rajajinagar. Parents and children enthusiastically entered the branch on the day of the event, eyes filled with fun and frolic. Different stories were narrated using props and the kids interacted with zeal. Stories based on day-to-day happenings were also narrat-
ed. Later the kids were given a chance to narrate stories of their choice, which they did with ease. Origami color squares were given to the kids after the session. Since 1998, the Kathalaya group has been training teachers, representatives of non-governmental organisations, parents, students, corporates and other professionals to use story telling as an educational, communicative and cultural tool to effect a change in society.
Whitefield (Sat): 65970953, 28543405 Prestige Shantiniketan, Whitefield: 43364183
Bejai: 08242214040 Mumbai Kandivali: 9769556165 Nerul: 02227729788, 9004819059
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Yelahanka: 42138080 Bangalore AECS Layout: 65470141
Kalyan Nagar: 42084394, 9986072204
Banashankari: 41637052, 9535854732
Kanakapura: 22560130 Koramangala: 40982460
Basaveshwarnagar: 40951324, 9739988376
Koramangala 8th Block: 25702799
Bellandur: 25740710, 42118813 Langford Road: 22222375 Brigade Metropolis: 22652217 Malleshwaram: 41280649 Electronic City: 41105922, 9945421900
Rajajinagar: 41126790, 9886203223
Frazer Town: 41644449 HSR Layout: 22587430, 7259974251
Rajarajeshwari Nagar: 28607751, 9535854732 RMV II Stage: 23410800
Indira Nagar: 65831547, 42044157 Sahakar Nagar: 41713941 Jayanagar 5th Block: 9740894014, 42068676
Sarjapur Road: 42129279
J P Nagar - Dollar's Colony: 42228168
Vidyaranyapura: 23644501, 8095854950
J P Nagar: 42106418
Vijaya Bank Layout: 41645690
Kaggadaspura: 65474465
Vijaynagar: 42117539
Kadugodi: 9886722650
Whitefield: 41260396, 32999406
Powai: 02240158736/8408 Chennai Adyar: 044-45501188, 9176078188 Annanagar: 7299305663 Coimbatore Race Course Road: 9843009711 Hyderabad Aparna Cyber Commune: 9177474747
Thane: 02221730784, 9987512059 Mysore Kalidasa Road: 08214253237, 99000 12611 Kuvempu Nagar: 08214241181, 9900012611 Pune Aundh: 02025896016, 7385022201
ECIL: 04030226209 Karkhana: 04040189957, 9849024415 Gachibowli: 9032490978 Kukatpally: 04040036387 Miyapur: 040402021 30, 9959690066 Jubilee Hills: 9849748117 Kochi Panampilly Nagar: 04844015949 Kolkata Salt Lake City: 03340012211 Mangalore
For franchise inquiries contact: manager@justbooksclc.com
Kothrud: 02041303676, 8605382202 Magarpatta City: 02067231020, 9561550003 Pimple Saudagar: 020-27206604, 9945551326 Singhad Road: 9371029694 Viman Nagar: 02026633134, 9561550002 Wanowarie: 02030116811, 7385022202 Vishakapatanam Lawson Bay Colony: 09949445558