“At that time, I produced a squeegee holder used in screen printing in India from a plastic material. It was an 18-inch squeegee, which in my opinion, no one has produced even today,” said Parmar, a print technologist from RC Technical Institute in Ahmedabad.

A pat on the back from the late Dhirubhai Mistry (founder of Graphica Flextronica and father of Bhargav Mistry) spurred Parmar to go beyond serving Gujarat’s print industry as a trader.

As a private organiser, Parmar had hosted a tradeshow, his first – 'Screen O' Set Print Expo 2000'. “During the exhibition, a printer friend talked about starting an informative monthly magazine for the printing industry and promised to advertise for a year. I moved in that direction and started publishing Printing Samachar from April 2001,” he said.

Within a year it was time for him to close his trading business.

Parmar said Printing Samachar received solid support from Mudresh Purohit, owner of Surya Offset, where the magazine is printed, and Jyotikumar Choksi, the print guru of Gujarat, who agreed to join the magazine as its editor. “I got a lot of encouragement from the printing industry, which gave me the encouragement to do what I set out to do.”

Initially, the Gujarati language was not Parmar’s strong point. “After initially publishing two-three issues, I suddenly got a letter from Surya Offset. It was written by Jitendrabhai Purohit, father of Mudresh Purohit (we called him Jitukaka). He proofread the magazine, and pointed 1,500 linguistic errors.” Parmar added, “He mentioned that the language in magazines needs to be uncluttered. He also wrote that ‘Surya Offset would not print the Printing Samachar with so many grammatical errors’.”

It was a sweet, but harsh knock that touched Parmar and at the same time convinced him that Printing Samachar is not Narendra Parmar's estate. “It is the magazine of the entire printing industry. I thank Jitukaka for the tapli (a tap on the head) he gave me.”

Congratulating his friend Parmar, Devang Sheth, publisher, SPI magazine said, “It gives me great happiness to note that Printing Samachar has completed two decades and is entering its 21st year of publication. The fact that a monthly printing magazine in Gujarati language has achieved this milestone is a matter of pride for the entire community. Printing Samachar provides up-to-date news, latest product information and interviews of leading printing personalities of Gujarat every month.”

Parmar (c) with son Raj (l) and wife Priti (r)

PrintWeek would also like to congratulate Parmar on this significant milestone. Parmar has been sharing information on the Gujarat print industry, connecting the edit team to the print fraternity and always accompanying the team to the print plant using his own resources. “He has been an important ally of PrintWeek in Gujarat,” said Noel D’Cunha, managing editor at PrintWeek.

Parmar is the editor of Printing Samachar, which is published by his company, Raj Publication, where his wife Priti and son Raj provide administrative support.