Yesterday, for the very first time I went for a book launch it was of a novel named "The Curse of Gandhari". Unfortunately, it ended up in a disaster as people did not turn up for the event, hardly there were like 10-15 people in a hall capacity of approximately 70. A regular Saturday evening with the regular Chenaiyya traffic and not a drop of rain so, there was no chance for the usual reasons like heavy traffic due to rain or the most important preferred one in today's time "it was a weekday and was tied up with work".
The author Aditi Banerjee came all the way from the United States to Bharat, at the first glance itself we felt like she was trying to portray a strong face but, the low turnout had a clear impact on her.
For the novice that I am for such events, I did not carry much expectations, still felt the need to ponder on why this happened. Firstly, I would like to clarify that I am not questioning anybody's priorities and each one has every right to have a different opinion than what I am saying.
The primary reason what I think here is the ever-growing materialistic mindset ("what's in it for me" question in every situation). People view such events as preachy and even if the event is free for all the turnout is usually low. Another very important point is books are not categorized under the genre of entertainment and as we hear very often weekends are for leisure and family time. And predominantly "family time" means going to shopping malls or for a movie or taking a long drive, etc. Parents have a usual response like "my son or daughter will not let me listen to the speaker and will create a nuisance" however, the same people will buy a hefty ticket to watch a movie and spend most of the time out of the cinema screen to shush the kid. In a big metro city like Chennai, we cannot even find 100 people who come and support Indic thought. At such instances, you feel the importance of physical glamour and it is very rare that it can be replaced by academic glamour. Another point where I think the organizer Indic Academy is lacking is insufficient publicity of such events, just one or two posts on facebook or twitter are not enough.
At the end of it, I consider such events help spread the Indic thought and if these efforts don't come through well, the purpose is not fulfilled in the true sense.
The author Aditi Banerjee came all the way from the United States to Bharat, at the first glance itself we felt like she was trying to portray a strong face but, the low turnout had a clear impact on her.
For the novice that I am for such events, I did not carry much expectations, still felt the need to ponder on why this happened. Firstly, I would like to clarify that I am not questioning anybody's priorities and each one has every right to have a different opinion than what I am saying.
The primary reason what I think here is the ever-growing materialistic mindset ("what's in it for me" question in every situation). People view such events as preachy and even if the event is free for all the turnout is usually low. Another very important point is books are not categorized under the genre of entertainment and as we hear very often weekends are for leisure and family time. And predominantly "family time" means going to shopping malls or for a movie or taking a long drive, etc. Parents have a usual response like "my son or daughter will not let me listen to the speaker and will create a nuisance" however, the same people will buy a hefty ticket to watch a movie and spend most of the time out of the cinema screen to shush the kid. In a big metro city like Chennai, we cannot even find 100 people who come and support Indic thought. At such instances, you feel the importance of physical glamour and it is very rare that it can be replaced by academic glamour. Another point where I think the organizer Indic Academy is lacking is insufficient publicity of such events, just one or two posts on facebook or twitter are not enough.
At the end of it, I consider such events help spread the Indic thought and if these efforts don't come through well, the purpose is not fulfilled in the true sense.
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