-Brian Mendonça
I used to love their
History list and the canto series where they used to publish titles of popular
science and history. Stephen Blake’s Shahjahanabad (CUP) about old Delhi and
Lal Qila was one of my favourites when I was discovering Delhi. It was with CUP
that I travelled --as an English Language Teaching (ELT) consultant -- to
Srinagar, Chandigarh and Haryana – and of course Kathmandu.
If you ask me why I attend seminars, it’s because I go to
listen to the way people use language.
Invariably there are words which I can only blink at, straining to hear
it in its fullness.
As English grows at a phenomenal rate, it is imperative to
keep pace with the times. Sadly, the vocabulary level in most circles is only
average. If you use a difficult word you may not be understood. Worse still,
you may be accused of trying to show off.
Thankfully, these assumptions were not operative in the
Publishing Next conference held last week at the Goa Science Centre, Miramar.
For four days, this was a space which was an auteur’s delight. Words of all ilk
skittered across the dais like silk.
This, after all, was a gathering of virtually the who’s who
of the publishing world in India. So one had just to sit back and step into a
rarefied universe of words. The dexterity with which the ideas were presented,
the clarity of argument, and the conciseness of speech made you want to listen
with rapt attention. It was a lesson in erudition. The speakers knew precisely
when to stop, when to pause for effect, and when to gesture for emphasis.
Of course, in an intimate space of publishing professionals
one had to be familiar with the register (or jargon, if you prefer) being used.
But for me this was all music to my ears. Having been in
educational publishing for close to a decade in Delhi, it was like back to work
for me. The icing on the cake was that I met my first boss, Mr Manas Saikia who
gave me my first job in Delhi with Foundation Books way back in 1997. FB was a
franchisee of Cambridge University Press (CUP).
I used to love their
History list and the canto series where they used to publish titles of popular
science and history. Stephen Blake’s Shahjahanabad (CUP) about old Delhi and
Lal Qila was one of my favourites when I was discovering Delhi. It was with CUP
that I travelled --as an English Language Teaching (ELT) consultant -- to
Srinagar, Chandigarh and Haryana – and of course Kathmandu.
As the memories came flooding back, I reflected how we
returned to Goa in 2011 and restarted our lives. We are on a different page now and the
frenetic pace of Delhi is behind us.
Sugato Ghosh (formerly Oxford UniversityPress) said that it
is difficult to get good writing in English. There is a shift from routine stories about
urban Indian angst. The wealth –‘bibliodiversity’ - is in regional literatures. So the way to go
is having them translated into English. More time should be spent on finding
new translators.
There is a shift to non-fiction titles, felt Kabani C,
author and translator from Thrissur, who has translated Chetan Bhagat into
Malayalam and whose line helms this piece.
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www.publishingnext.in
is an initiative of Leonard Fernandes and Queenie Fernandes of
CinnamonTeal design and publishing, Margao, Goa. Published in Weekender, Gomantak Times, Panjim, Goa on 29 September 2019. Pix taken at conference venue, Goa Science Centre, Miramar on 22 September 2019. Courtesy Brian Mendonca
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