In a country used to consuming oral stories, audio books have come as a boon. With authors going the extra mile, celebs adding star value and music jazzing things up, you are set for an extravaganza. It's a 'sound' idea!
He's travelled the world with his parents and Hindi was his second language in school, but Utanko Mitra knows the classic Kakababu mystery Sabuj Dwiper Raja by heart. Mind you, the Class XII student of St Xavier's Collegiate School can't read or write Bengali well. But a new technology, a pair of headphones and an intelligent mind has let him access the magical world of adventure created by Sunil Gangopadhyay.
Utanko, you might have guessed, heard — not read — the story on an audio book. "Since then, he keeps asking me to download more books. He says listening to a story is an experience which cannot be compared to reading. I have noticed that his Bengali diction has improved and his concentration and patience levels have gone up since he started listening to audio books. I wish more superhero novels of Bengali literature are converted into audio. I too have started listening to self-help books while driving," says his mother Durba Mitra. Durba and her son are not alone. Even in Kolkata, a booklovers' paradise, a fast-paced urban lifestyle is turning many avid readers into fans of audio books. The benefits? You can plug in while you're driving, cooking, exercising — an audio book can be a companion for almost all hours.
Narrator is the key
"Reading and listening are different activities. They can't be compared. I have listened to as well as read books by DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy. For the audio books, it's almost like watching a film without visuals. Listening to a book by a foreign author, and read out by a narrator from that part of the world, helps me understand pronunciation of some words better, thus improving my language," says therapist Diksha Shah, adding, "The narrator is important when it comes to audio books. A recognized voice helps me connect better to the book."
That is probably why many celebs like Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, Rahul Dravid, Sanjay Dutt, Konkona Sen Sharma, Boman Irani, Jaaved Jaaferi and Soha Ali Khan have lent their voices to the audio book of the children's classic, Karadi Tales. The title music for it has been done by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. "The concept of audio books is fantastic because music is a very powerful tool and can really make a situation come alive in the eyes of your mind," says composer Shankar Mahadevan.
Jaaved Jaaferi feels it is a good medium to initiate the habit of reading in children, provided it's done in an interesting way. "Books move in snail's pace, which is too boring for today's generation hooked on digital media. As for adults, it is an acquired taste. I am also planning to buy and listen to one soon," he smiles.
The audio book market is also evolving. Appropriate background sound is being added to complete the experience of listening to a story. Earlier, only a single voiceover artiste would read out a story; now multiple artistes are giving voices for different characters. Many authors like Rujuta Diwekar and Devdutt Pattanaik are giving their own voices to their books to lend that personal touch. Rujuta even got Kareena to read out an introduction to her book. "I liked the idea of an audio book as Indians prefer hearing a story than reading it. Since I am a speaker, it was a natural choice for me to record it in my own voice. However, since it takes too much time and effort to record the whole book, I restricted myself to a few pages and sections," says Devdutt. Rashid Raza, who is the voice of the audio book of Amish's Immortals of Meluha, says the challenge was to give different accents for different characters. "People who've read my books also like to listen to them in my voice," reasons Ravinder Singh, whose audio book version of I Too Had A Love Story is one of the bestsellers in the category.
Spoken versus written
Amish, who has launched the audio book of his bestsellers Immortals of Meluha and The Secret Of The Nagas, is upbeat about the growing trend in India. "Audio books are big abroad, while it is just picking up in India. At present we are targeting those who want to know a story, but are short on time. India has always had a culture of consuming oral stories, where we are hooked on grandmom's tales. We consume spoken words more than the written text. Some sound effects and music just add to the narrative. Voices help in portraying an emotion better," he adds. Ask him whether listening to stories will curb the habit of reading and he reasons, "In ancient India and Greece, knowledge was only passed down orally through gurus. Did it make the students any less intelligent? The idea is to absorb the philosophy. How you do it doesn't matter."
Source | Times of India | 13 July 2013
