Are bookshops going to become redundant?

Sitting in Hyderabad Airport doing something I always love to do. I am just outside the Airport Bookshop ordering books online. What astounds me is that the very same books that I could have bought at the shop for huge cover prices are available online at 40% below the cover price. It takes about a week for the online bookshop to supply my order. So what? I have saved so much money. I already have books to read on flight. These are books I would love to read; but not so desperately and immediately.

Browsing in bookshops is definitely cool! But buying there is definitely uncool!

Actually the online browsing experience is awesome as every title is at your fingertip and a search away! At Landmark you have to request the sullen and surly TATA employee for the title you want and wait pathetically while he asks around apathetically and returns with the usual, "sorry sir or madam (as the case maybe! Because he's too busy to notice anyway!) It is not available.

Online book shopping allows you to search different editions and compare prices If you don't want to buy you can put it on your wishlist and later buy it.

Finally, the payment can be made on delivery! (At least on Flipkart and Homeshop18 it is possible.)

Odyssey has suspended its 360 website! In fact I was an Odyssey customer online till my 14 year old son put me on to flipkart. Then I discovered Home Shop 18 and put him on to it!

Landmark is the same snooty entity online too and the prices are not at all competitive. No wonder they are forced to sell books at discount by putting them in 3 for 2 and 2 for 1 bundles. Why don't they simply accept that the book selling business is going online and work on a friendly on line presence.

Finally as of now and for the record Homeshop 18 is the cheapest in India! Check it out! May be they are cutting their own throat!

But why should we care! Happy online book shoppuing!

Beyond Auditing

CA G Narayanaswamy’s Autobiography was released yesterday at a function at the Sivakami Pethichi Auditorium. Usually at most book releases, the function starts as and when enough people arrive. For Beyond Auditing, the hall was packed about half an hour before the appointed time! The function started exactly on time. This, by itself, was an indicator of the tremendous importance of the event.

The luminaries on the dias included Dr. M S Swaminathan, The Father of India’s Green Revolution who released the book. Mr. B.S.Raghavan, IAS (Retd.) presided over the meeting. Mr. Era. Sezhiyan, Ex-MP, Mr. K. Vaidyanathan, Editor, Dinamani                          and Mr. S. Gurumurthy, FCA, Columnist felicitated. The function was organized by the Rajaji Centre for Public Affairs and D Rangaswamy Academy for Fiscal Research.

On returning from the function I went out for dinner with my wife. On return, being an insomniac I decided to dip into the book which I had purchased at the stall immediately after the release. Believe me, I was enthralled by the book! It was a page-turner that kept me going and suddenly I found I had travelled with GN, the author from his school days in Kumbakonam to his taking up practice in Madras! The book is as gripping as a Jeffrey Archer novel. The story of an impoverished kumbakonam boy who goes on to become a highly influential Chartered Accountant and Public Figure is endearing and interesting. I kept turning the pages eager to know what happens next as GN relates anecdotes involving his contemporaries who were all men of influence and reputation in their respective fields. If this book had been written as a novel in Tamil it would need a writer of Balakumaran’s skill to tell it!

But GN tells his story like a true accountant. Without a trace of hyperbole! The words are so matter-of-fact yet, they evoke emotions that strike at the very root of one’s soul. Every one who believes in the value of values will find themselves relating to GN’s story.

GN says, “one need not boast of one’s poverty striken past, nether should one forget or be ashamed of the same.” This is a classic example of the balanced approach that epitomizes the profession of accountancy.

This is not mean self-congratulatory retelling of GN’s achievements. It is a veritable chronicle of our times and a vital document that historians in furture times will rely on to get a better understanding of the events described by GN from first-hand experience.

The book should be a must-read for every Chartered Accountant. Every page will make everyone of us proud to belong to the same profession that can count this colossus in its list of members! GN is truly the Charteres Accountant’s Chartered Accountant!

 In fact every Indian who wants to make meaning out of this mindless morass that our country has become should read this book to get their bearings straight on their journey through life. GN is a beacon light standing tall and proud showing us both the way ahead as well as the dangers that will beset greed and falsehood.

Here is a giant among men who shows the way not by command but by example and a quintessentially Gandhian humility that is gentle yet strong!