By PRABEER SIKDAR
DEHRADUN, 22 Apr 2009:
A hitherto unknown book on Gandhi’s quotes – Aaj ka Vichar (Daily Thoughts) -- which was written by Jairam Das Daulat Ram, the then Governor of Bihar in 1948, is on display at Moti Bazar based Readers’ Choice book store.
Written by Gandhiji, himself, from 20 November, 1944 to 20 August, 1948, the maxims printed in the book retain his own scribbled handwriting in Hindi (printed version) along with the readable text provided by Jairam Das Daulat Ram in clear Hindi.
In the preface, written by Anand Hingorani, Gandhi dedicates the book of quotes to one Vidya alias Rishikanya. Then priced at Rs 10, the book has over 300 quotations relating to worldly wisdom.
“There may have been only 100 copies of this book. Of these, only this piece survives,” claimed Naseem, proprietor of Readers’ Choice, who also deals in rare books of historical importance.
The book, in tattered shape, now, reportedly costs thousands. “The Collector who has offered to display this book is also willing to sell it,” he told Garhwal Post, while refusing to name the Collector.
Another book (in two volumes), which the Readers’ Choice proprietor claims to be of rare category, is a hard bound edition of the Times of India’s collected front pages titled ‘Forefront’ (published during 1938-1988) and selected edit page articles titled ‘Viewpoint’ (published during 1900-1990).
Features
The first mentioned book (published in the year 1988, costing Rs 275 then), contains the reprinted version of all the important national and international happenings, as appeared in the newspaper, in A4 size.
The book has all important front page stories published in that paper during 1938-1988, including the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, declaration of Emergency, death of Nehru, 1971 war, etc.
Similarly, in the second book titled ‘Viewpoint’, are contained collected edit page articles (during 1900-1990) written by many luminaries on a wide spectrum of social, political, economic and cultural happenings at the national and international levels.
Among the articles reprinted in the book are those by Dr Rajendra Prasad (The Making of the Constitution), JRD Tata (Government and Industry), Dr Homi Bhabha (Science and the State), Nehru (What is Culture), Tenzing Norgay ('On to the Summit', a first hand account of his Mt Everest conquest) etc.
One of the interesting articles has been written by RH Goddard (To the Moon), which he wrote in February 1930, imagining mankind’s venture to the moon with the type of rocket patented by him (Man actually set foot on the moon in 1969).
According to Naseem, these two books ‘are also priceless’. “They too have gone out of print.”
I also have a copy of the Forefront mentioned in the article.
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