This two-year-old Bangalore startup makes books talk

Are you one of those who love to read books but fail to find enough time to do so? What if you could listen to books on your way to work or while you are stuck in traffic?

Jai Zende and Jayashree Mantri Easwaran, who asked the question themselves, thought about coming up with a solution. That is how BooksTalk was born. The two-year-old firm sells audio books in different languages. Though there is a small market for audio books for kids, this is the first time someone from India has launched a firm that provides audio books for adults.

“My partner and I were working with Fidelity when one day we realised that how as adults we were reading much lesser than we used to as 12 hours of work and various domestic chores leave us with little time. We constantly read mails and other important stuff when we are in office. Hence, the reading part of the brain is quite tired by the time we find time for ourselves. So, we decided to provide audio books. I know a lot of Marathi writers who read out their own books and the experience is equally enjoyable,” said Zende.

BooksTalk’s business model is based on this premise: as children we enjoyed listening to bedtime stories and folktales narrated by our grandparents and parents. Hence, if we could enjoy listening to stories then, we would surely enjoy it now. With Indian book publishing industry at an all-time high, the firm decided to bring the flavour of Indian authors to its audience.

As of now, Zende and Easwaran have converted 30 titles, including books from English, Kannada and Bengali. These include Subroto Bagchi’s Go Kiss the World, Devdutt Pattanaik’s Jaya: An illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata and 7 Secrets of Shiva, Sudha Murthy’s Wise and Otherwise and Manada Mathu, Chandrashekhara Kambara’s Singaravva Mattu Aramane and Sunil Gangopadhyay’s stories featuring Kakababu.

“I wanted to bring in regional authors as well. There are so many of us who do not know how to read or write our mother tongue. So we often miss out reading some quality stuff.” Besides, according to Zende, only one in five Indians manage to read a book in a year. “Hence, we thought of bringing the joy of good writing from the confines of a book to the audible form.”

The books are read out by theatre artistes and actors. In some cases, the author himself is the narrator, like Subroto Bagchi. Soumya Prabhakar, who regularly buys these audio books, feels that audio books are as interesting as their paperback counterparts. “For a brief period I had lost touch with books. Now I use my driving time for reading,” Soumya said.