Spirituality, self-help hold sway at Chennai Book Fair

CHENNAI: Spirituality, self-help and management, mostly translated from English into Tamil, dominate the shelves at the 35th Chennai Book Fair, which was inauguratedon Thursday.
At the annual book fair, which is on till January 17 at St George’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, there are 682 stalls set up by 390 participants, said R S Shanmugam, president of the Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association of South India.Participants are from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and even a few from NewDelhi andUttar Pradesh.
“Nearly 70% of our catalogue consists of translations,” said Gandhi Kannadhasan of Chennai-based Kannadhasan Pathippagam. The publisher has stocked up on not just bestsellersby thelateOsho andAP J Abdul Kalam’s autobiography ‘Wingsof Fire’ but alsobookson computers and volumes by spiritual leaders such as Swami Rama andtheDalaiLama.
“Wehavebroughtout nearly 8,000 copies of Swami Rama’s ‘Living With The Himalayan Masters’ because of the demand. We have also issued new imprints of poet Kannadhasan’s ‘Arthamulla Indu Matham’,” saidKannadhasan.
Itisthesamescene atstallsof Tamil publishers Kizhakku Pathippagam andAnanda Vikatan.KizhakkuPathippagam has tied up with foreign publisher Pearson to bring out Tamil translations of the 1981 book, ‘Body Language’ by Allan Pease.
Local writers have also been translated from English to Tamil.Ananda Vikatan hascollaborated with Sage Publishers to bring out titles such as Chennai psychiatrist Vijay Nagaswami’s ‘The Fifty-50 Marriage’ and the acclaimed ‘One Little Finger’ by Malini Chib, who has cerebral palsy.
At the Mumbai-based Jaico Publishing House’s stall, there areeighttranslatedtitlesofRobin Sharma, including his most famous work, ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’.
“Weselltranslations in all Indian languages but the maximum demand for them is from Tamil Nadu,” said VenkatRatnam,salesexecutive.