Science magazine at Printwell. Plus Cito Systems, loving books at Penguin and Mayday

Rummaging through student's reports and tech journals, I came across Science Age. Vol 3. No 5. May 1985. The highlights of the 64-page monthly science magazine published by Nehru Centre. Priced at Rs 3 were: Jayant Narkilar's essay on Cosmic Inflation, Govind Swarup on Radio Astronomy, a piece on the science of dance movement and poems by Adil Jussawalla, Science and I.

In the flannel panel it stated printed at Printwell (Mumbai). As Sanjeev Govekar who worked at Printwell says, "Science Age was a Nehru Centre publication and aimed to bring science closer to
people sooner."

Govekar joined Printwell whose director was Pranav Parikh (now CMD of TechNova). In those days, in addition to Science Age, the firm produced 36 magazines which included Debonair, Femina, etc. Printwell was equipped with machines like Xirkon plus the RO 62 along with a raft of post-press kit.

The Science Age pages are black and white and there are illustrations and doodles. The number of copies were approximately 8,000 copies. The cover page is in 90 gsm JAP which was printed on a MOV sheetfed press and the SNP for text pages. Govekar says, "Positives were supplied, and the plates were deep etch. The colour correction was done by Kiran Pansare. The issue was saddle-stitched and was always on schedule."

A pity we have no science magazines for the general public, today, in a 21st century India, which is planning to rule the world ...
 

Free books at Penguin

Meanwhile a friend in the industry sent me this picture (below).

These are the meeting rooms in Penguin India head office in Cyber City, Gurgaon.

Books are stacked on shelves and people are encouraged to take the books home for free. The idea is to encourage reading or gifting to some one who will read.

Then there are some shelves outside stacked with books that can't be taken away for free.

Although the friend said, "I did take some from these as well, including "the full collection of Gabriel Garcia Marquez".

You can't prevent a book lover from stealing the best. Can you?

Rahul, Dibya and I at May Day Bookstore

Last month, Rahul Kumar, Dibyajyoti Sarma and I trudged to May Day Bookstore in West Delhi. This was after a superb session with Arun Gandhi who explained CITO creasing systems to us. The German-based firm is a die cutting and creasing leader. Gandhi dwelled on: creasing parameters; what is preferable? cutting face up or face down? Also the cutting pressure and makeready technique (patch up)? Plus nicking and rubbering and its influence on the cutting and trimming result.

Mr Gandhi: Time to host a workshop for India's packaging converters on creasing matrix and stripping systems.

Two minutes from the Gandhi office is the bookstore which housed in a cozy space in Ranjit Nagar. If you are lucky, the publisher of Leftword and theatre guru, Sudhanva Deshpande will make a frugal cup of coffee for you. All three of us picked up books, from politics to poetry to Uday Prakash.

The previous week was a book sale in which friends, comrades and book lovers contributed books which could be picked up by other book lovers.

So all you book print firms, if you have spare books and booklets, please contact studiosafdar@gmail.com

All you have to do is: Look through your stores and godowns for serious fiction and/or academic books you are unlikely to sell. If yes, you can send them to May Day and help them create Delhi's best second-hand book store.

Also, May Day plans to set up a small library for the children in the locality. Again, all help is welcome.

Please encourage reading.

Till next time ...

PS: A WhatsApp ping from P Sajith informs me that Welbound's PUR page Facebook has "21,482 likes".  More power to PUR. More power (literally) to books.