PICS: ROMA ARYAL

Almost everyone who left Sajha Prakhashan's book fair at the Rastriya Sabha Griha in Kathmandu took home a bundle of books that were cheaply priced to start with, and then discounted.

"Each year, we have a massive increase in both the number of people who come and the sales," says Rudra Neupane, head of the marketing department at Sajha. The book fair has been held for the past 25 years and takes place simultaneously at 28 other locations in Nepal, besides Kathmandu.

This year, discount rates ranged from 25 to 80 per cent on some especially old but valuable issues of Sajha's magazine Garima.

However, Sajha Prakhashan has been struggling to pull funds together for the past few years. After the government gave private publishers permission to print and sell books in 32 districts in the Eastern and Western development regions, Sajha has lost its monopoly in cities where it was able to maintain a profit margin that was able to subsidise expenses for sales to remote districts. In places like Jumla where books have to be transported by helicopter, human or mule-back, Sajha allows a suicidal 86 per cent discount on its books.

While the private sector is apathetic towards remote regions of Nepal, as a public utility controlled by the government, Sajha meets government pressure to distribute. Although the government does not provide financial support to Sajha, government officials oversee and coordinate activities. "We have been asking for subsidies, but demands have not been met so far," Victor Pradhan, general manager of Sajha Prakashan told Nepali Times. Discussion about making Sajha an independent institution has also been going on, but nothing is certain yet.

Sajha is not publishing prolifically?printing a mere 40 new titles per year. However, it works together with 19 other private publishers who are also being represented at the fair. Of the 5,000 titles on display in Kathmandu, everything from children's, classics, spiritual, self-help and academic books are available.

However, Sajha continues to make plans to expand its reach in terms of the book fair. This year, the bulk of books on display were in Nepali while a few were in Newari. Sajha is planning to publish course-books, literature and teach-yourself-books in a number of different languages including Maithili and Bhojpuri. Moreover, they want to decentralise from Kathmandu to Dang and Biratnagar, where sales soared this year.

Despite difficulties, Victor is optimistic. He says: "We feel that our greatest achievement has been to encourage a reading culture among Nepalis."
Roma Aryal

The book fair will go on till
13 February, every day from 9AM -6PM.