Book ahoy!

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital feels a book release isn't good enough till it really causes a 'release'

Dilip Cherian India's 'Image Guru' and a diehard observer of the capital feels a book release isn't good enough till it really causes a 'release'

Mall mania no more: The tide of malls is slowing down, thanks to the slump in the retail sectoru00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0 File Pic

Mumbai will get its turn soon. In the meantime, smart folk will go and start buying, reading and absorbing. When the Caravan arrives in Mumbai, issues will be raised that this city already buzzes with the launch of 'Prism Me a Lie'u00a0- "Tehelka as Metaphor" Madhu Trehan's 600 page tome on truth as it is practiced in India.

Abandoning the ritual launch function format, Madhu had a dozen "young lawyers" and a dozen of her "not-so-young" news track team simultaneously launching the book. Having also bravely done away with the routine VIP-oriented launch, Madhu even dispensed with the standard "talking heads" debate. Instead Kiran Bedi, fresh with her newly acquired TV anchoring skills played traffic cop to a rowdy Town Hall-type conversation with the packed hall, on corruption in India. The irrepressible Kapil Sibbal briefly attempted to hog the mike. But Ashok Desai, Atul Punj and others also leapt in, along with nameless others to keep the Town Hall yelling.

In times not so long ago, this kind of book launch would have been unthinkable. Not so in these new vocal times. Delhi has raised its voice. Will Mumbai?

Realty bites

In the midst of the recession gloom, here's a startling bit of news: a tiny 133 sq ft shop in south Delhi will fetch NDMC a rent of Rs 12.09 lakh per month, almost 10 times the prevailing rate in the capital, and the highest in the world. A similar shop on New York's famed Fifth Avenue would rent for Rs 10 lakh a month!

The slump in the retail sector is getting deeper across India. It's most evident in the dwindling number of malls being declared complete. It is certainly true for Mumbai where only two million square feet of mall space was added against the projected 4.3 million square feet.

With the tide of malls slowing down, retailers are doing a rethink. Rentals are down. In most of Delhi's commercial areas rentals have declined by 16 per cent. In Mumbai, too, rentals have dropped sharply in just three months!