Library Conversation - part 1

“Don’t you have foreign Author’s books ?” asked a lady looking at ‘new arrivals section’ books in the library . I was looking at books at the Indian Authors category and was surprised to hear this question as there is just one small section of Indian Authors, and was not sure why lady asked this question ….. I looked back to see who had questioned … saw a slim smart looking lady in her probably late 20’s or early 30’s wearing a lovely cotton Ikkat sari, a laptop bag, short hair … she saw me turning at her and I instantly smiled at her and got back to my search for books …

When I joined this library, the first book I picked was Khalid Houssenni’s Thousand Splendor, and after that next 10 -12 books were all by Indian/Indian Origin authors Jhumpa Lahiri, Shashi Tharoor, Ruskin bond, Khushwant Singh, Sudha Murthy, Adiga, Ruth Jhabwala, Gulzar to name few . Most of the books I enjoyed except few one or two …  Then I started looking at the other sections and there were very few Indian Authors … and so I wondered why did the lady ask that question ….  Librarian was surprised but politely said “These days lot of Indian writers books are getting published, probably that’s why many Indian books “  ….

I never was not much into serious reading earlier, so I actually don’t have much idea about Writers and books, I usually go by book reviews in newspaper or many a times by my gut feeling, and most of the time it has been good experience picking up book, without worrying too much about the Origins of the author ….