There is a new book shop in town and its all yellow. Its called Words n' Pages and is two-stories high. Has a lil' cafe upstairs, whose occupants may be seen from outside through the large window (the table of the cafe is by the window).
When i went in, i was surprised by how many books they had by Indian writers! Usually that will not be a surprise since Indian literature is very popular here. I am talking about children's books, comics, travel books, history books written in English. Later a friend who joined me there confirmed my hunch of the store being owned by Indians. Kudos to them for setting up a nice shop like that!
What really hooked me that night was the comic books they had - (DC, Marvel...) Superman, Justice League, Batman, Thundercats and more. Since i was very into these things during my school years, i got nostalgic and bought a bunch of them for my cousin Nil whose birthday was approaching. I was amazed to see that the penciling and drawings for these comics were done in India! So now DC has an office in Mumbai where the comics are made locally! The Indians have a lot to teach us which we overlook (possibly due to the weight of their other import - Bollywood), and this is also true for Malaysia. These two countries have made leaps in past decades and they have done so by gathering investment and building industries there. Anyway, it was also kinda funny to see an ad in one of the comics of an indian version of spiderman wearing a white pajama and nagra! Talk about localization!
I came home happy with my purchases that night. Also the experience of walking through shelves filled with books was kinda calming. I had bought about 10 comics that night and the prices were either taka 30 or 50 (thickness wise). This I thought was ok since most indian books sell here for double. But later I saw in fine print below the place where it was written 'Rs. 15', the letters:
'Bangladesh: Tk. 18'
!!! I felt very cheated. The one that cost taka 50 had 'Tk. 30' on it! Is this legal?
When i went in, i was surprised by how many books they had by Indian writers! Usually that will not be a surprise since Indian literature is very popular here. I am talking about children's books, comics, travel books, history books written in English. Later a friend who joined me there confirmed my hunch of the store being owned by Indians. Kudos to them for setting up a nice shop like that!
What really hooked me that night was the comic books they had - (DC, Marvel...) Superman, Justice League, Batman, Thundercats and more. Since i was very into these things during my school years, i got nostalgic and bought a bunch of them for my cousin Nil whose birthday was approaching. I was amazed to see that the penciling and drawings for these comics were done in India! So now DC has an office in Mumbai where the comics are made locally! The Indians have a lot to teach us which we overlook (possibly due to the weight of their other import - Bollywood), and this is also true for Malaysia. These two countries have made leaps in past decades and they have done so by gathering investment and building industries there. Anyway, it was also kinda funny to see an ad in one of the comics of an indian version of spiderman wearing a white pajama and nagra! Talk about localization!
I came home happy with my purchases that night. Also the experience of walking through shelves filled with books was kinda calming. I had bought about 10 comics that night and the prices were either taka 30 or 50 (thickness wise). This I thought was ok since most indian books sell here for double. But later I saw in fine print below the place where it was written 'Rs. 15', the letters:
'Bangladesh: Tk. 18'
!!! I felt very cheated. The one that cost taka 50 had 'Tk. 30' on it! Is this legal?
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