On 11 June 2020, I was invited by the renowned Hindi publishers Rajpal & Sons to talk about the importance of fostering a book reading culture. Rajpal & Sons is a 107 year old literary publishing house, based in New Delhi. They are one of the oldest and largest publishing house in India. Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Magsasay Award and Bhartiya Jnanpith winners like Dr. Amartaya Sen, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, RK Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Khushwant Singh, Amrita Pritam, Patrick Modiano, Kyung-Sook Shin, Liela Slimani, Devdutt Pattanaik, Dr. Pratibha Rai and J.Krishnamurti have been published by Rajpal & Sons. Their classic bestsellers are books like Madhushala, Kitne Pakistan, Vayam Raksham, Ashad Ka Ek Din and Draupadi, and recent bestsellers include Zindagi 50-50, Kashmirnama, Bali Umar, Mallika and Chabbila Rangbaaz Ka Shahar.’ Their stable of authors is formidable . Hence it was an honour and a privilege to be invited by Mrs Meera Johri and her son, Pranav, for an interaction on book reading culture. The webinar focused primarily on the culture begins at home particularly by encouraging children to read. But for adults too, outreach programmes and fostering libraries in communities is equally essential.

Here is the recording of the programme:

19 June 2020