As the kids snatch up new books for the school year, their parents are returning from summer breaks abroad laden with their own reading material.
A.R. Suresh Kumar, who just returned from Bombay, is pepped up about the literary luggage he has brought back.
“I’ve purchased three books — ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,’ ‘Family Wisdom From the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,’ and ‘Who Will Cry When You Die’ — all penned by Robin Sharma,” he said. “Currently I am reading ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.’ It is about the spiritual experience of an American lawyer.”
Spirituality, in fact, seems to be the most popular genre among returning expats.
Niloufer Usmani, a Pakistani national, said her summer reading list included “The Zahir,” “Eleven Minutes” and “Veronica Decides to Die,” all by Paulo Coelho.
“Coelho takes his characters through self-discovering journeys,” said Usmani. “In doing so, he helps the readers explore themselves and confront their prejudices.”
Self-improvement is not limited to the spiritual domain; it finds a place in the office, too. Yes, occupational books are also popular among expats.
Ilyas Iran, an Indian human resource professional, is reading “How to Hire a Winner,” by Yavar Beg. “The book is all about recruiting the right people through interviews,” Iran said. “It is beneficial to employers and jobseekers alike.”
The popularity of occupational books cuts across all professions.
Usmani, who hails from Karachi and is a makeup artist, says, “I tend to read books about makeup, health and nutrition. This summer, I picked up Kevyn Aucoin’s ‘Making Faces.’ It is a must-read for all makeup artists or those who want to become one, as it has helped me add to my skills.”
Self-help books — philosophical or occupational — are relatively new to the hot-items list, but not enough to push the good old political, economic or religious literature off the shelves.
Imtiaz Ali, a Pakistani expat based in Madinah, said he was catching up on what he described as M.J. Akbar’s “latest and the best” book, “Blood Brothers: A Family Saga.” According to Ali, the book promotes better understanding between India and Pakistan.
In the book, Akbar narrates the story of a poor child, Prayaag (in the persona of the writer’s grandfather), who is adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love, trust and faith are continually tested. Incidents — conversion, circumcision, the arrival of plague or of electricity — and a fascinating array of characters interlink into a narrative of social history.
Hasan Ghias, vice president of a top Saudi firm, has purchased economist Joseph Stiglitz’s bestseller “Globalization and Its Discontents.”
A.G. Danish, an Indian, has read “A Call to Honour: In the Service of Emergent India,” by former Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.
“I had bought the book online from Indiatimes.com and it was waiting for me when I reached Delhi,” said Danish.
Online sites may help you decide on a book at click, but they lack the charm of a traditional bookstore, which is increasingly keeping up with the times in countries like India and Pakistan.
“The opening of big names like Oxford and Staples in Karachi has ensured a larger variety in the books available there,” said Mirza Ahtashamuddin, a Pakistani project manager, who is reading the Urdu novel “Zavia” by the late Ashfaq Ahmed. “The traditional Urdu bazaar in the city is also keeping up with the competition. Even the print quality of Urdu books has improved.”
Agrees Indian national Kumar. “Earlier, bookstores in India were the equivalent of ‘baqalas’. But now, thanks to liberalization, bookstores are no lesser than departmental stores where you can find several categories and subcategories of books. For instance, if you are into management, you’ll find a world of books on finance, marketing, etc. to choose from. Significantly, there has been a huge influx of foreign books into India.”
Bookstores in native countries weren’t the only haunts of expat readers this summer. Bookstores competed with duty-free shops at airports. For instance, Usmani picked up Coelho’s “The Zahir” from the London airport on her way to Jeddah, while Danish purchased “Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives” by Satyajit Das from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while on a business tour to Malaysia a week back.
The summer is book-buying season for expats because that is when they travel outside the Kingdom.
“It’s not just the quantity or variety of books that counts,” says Kumar. “A bookstore needs to have qualified salespersons who are aware of the books and the authors so that they can assist the customers. While the bookstores in Saudi Arabia score well on availability of books, they fare badly in customer service. I pick up books from India, Malaysia or Singapore.”
Regardless of where the books have been purchased from, the fact is that while the kids are busy getting their textbooks, their folks are having a great read!
(Irena Akbar is a freelance writer. She is based in Jeddah.)
