The National Book Trust (NBT), with its huge corpus of English and Hindi books in translation into Malayalam, is now focusing on publishing more original Malayalam works, besides taking them to other Indian languages.
Among the new volumes in the offing is an alluring one comprising retold stories for children from the lore of various tribes in Kerala, done by writer Indu Menon.
“We thought the creative reproduction of tribal tales would help the mainstream readers get to know these cultures up-close. The manuscript is ready, and the book is due for release in this financial year,” says Rubin D’Cruz, assistant editor (Malayalam), at NBT.
The publishing house, a Nehruvian legacy, had earlier brought out an anthology of stories by award-winning author Narayan, who writes on tribal life, and the book is now being translated into other Indian languages. Several books, including a biography of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the complete works of Sree Narayana Guru, and a compilation of new writings under the title Nava Rachana , have already been rendered into other languages.
NBT, which has been bridging the gap in children’s books by bringing out low-priced illustrated books – a rarity in Malayalam publishing otherwise – got a shot in the arm in Kerala with the setting up of a book promotion centre at the Revenue Tower in Ernakulam in 2015. “It was part of the seven book promotion centres opened around that time and the only directly operated centre of the organisation, apart from the three regional centres. The centre in Kerala grew steadily, registering sale of books worth ₹63.8 lakh in the last financial year,” says Mr. D’Cruz.
It was a record of sorts, as Chennai, which came second in terms of sales turnover among the centres last year, could only sell books worth half of what the Kochi centre attained. Given the rise in demand for NBT books, the sales target for the current year is ₹1 crore.
