Himanshu and Aqui of Bombay Underground
The independent and alternative publishing scene and the zines that are born out of it tell us a lot about the richness of a country’s creative culture. Unfortunately, it is exactly what India is missing out on. When Himanshu and Aqui realized the sheer lack of local indie zines in the country, they decided to swim against the tide and do something about it. The co-founders of Bombay Underground and Dharavi Art Room had already set up Underground Bookhouse with an intension to create, collect and discover alternative zines from across the country and the globe and introduce it to a larger audience. To take things up a notch, they launched the Bombay Zine Fest as a celebration of all things independent and self-published. At both editions in Mumbai and Kochi, the fest strung together an array of local and international zines spanning a multitude of genres. From fan zines about Patti Smith, Aqui’s self-compiled zine Periods - that explores first-hand narratives by women about their first period - to Bombay Underground’s very own art-based zine A5, the fest delves deep and pulls out striking, important and unputdownable titles.
Last week, Bombay Underground launched You Deserve to D.I.Y – a celebration of independently published literature, comic books, poetry, journalism and drawings – at Chaterjee & Lal, Mumbai. As the fest revs up to add a bunch of new titles to their line-up, I connect with Himanshu and together we explore their story, India’s alternative publishing scene and where 2017 is taking them.
Tell me a little more about the two of you. What piqued your interest in independent publishing?
Aqui is currently pursuing her doctoral studies in social work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and I continue to make watercolour paintings from time to time. Together we also run the Dharavi Art Room, and the Art Room Foundation. We have both been publishing zines and making artist books for some time now, so this was always coming. We both have super exciting personal collections of books. Mine is a mixture of outsider art, graphic novels, film, biographies and short stories. Aqui’s is more of female writers, writers of colour and graphic novels. Independent publishing is our grass roots response to the fact that most publishing houses and book-stores are either ignorant of radical literature and zines or deliberately exclude such materials. After fifteen years of consistent independent publishing, today we find ourselves as one of the important nodes for alternative publishing.
What inspired you to launch Bombay Underground and the Zine Fest?
Bombay Underground was formed as a need to actively and constructively solve problems, we make zines, indulge in interventions in the city, work with communities under-going forceful change - it’s been fifteen years now and we are still consistently doing it.
Aqui and I together started Underground Bookhouse, with help from a few more friends. It’s hard to find library materials that challenge the for-profit, corporate culture. Our well-stocked public and university libraries, though publicly funded, primarily serve private middle-class constituencies - businesses, professions, students, job-seekers, and consumers. There is a clear gap in the information world. As stated above, most libraries keep to the middle of the road. It is very hard to find any material published outside the mainstream, and especially hard to find materials that have been self-published (zines and factsheets), or non-mainstream periodicals, newspapers and tabloids. We need more independent bookstores as a city, we have none. We took it upon ourselves to fix this. We have all dreamed of owning a bookstore, this is the time to live that dream. A bookstore owned by booklovers, we are inviting more people to help sustain the space.
After more than fifteen years of making zines and setting up reading spaces in the city a few many times, last year we once again set up our Underground Bookhouse in Bandra, which houses independent publications and other exciting books, hence we thought now let’s get all different people making stuff together, and also connect all our friends we have made all over the world who also makezines.
Both Aqui and I believe that the bold endeavours of the zine-makers we present might even influence other hopefuls to pursue their dreams as well, ultimately allowing aspiring zine-makers to lead better, more fulfilled lives.
How difficult or easy was it to discover and collect the multitude of independent zines? What do these zines tell you about Indian creative culture at large?
As we are doing this completely independently with zero financial support from any big organizations as of now, it has been difficult, especially to sustain the whole thing for this long, but we have made friends who love us and support us all along this journey, so they will keep us afloat. As far as the participating zine-makers are concerned, the response has been great, especially from overseas, also a lot of mutual respect for work and warmth by fellow zine-makers, we are still receiving more zines and they will be added to the subsequent showings.
At present, we have majority zines from elsewhere in the world, a comparison that clearly shows that the Indian creative culture, needs to get more direct, participatory, grass-roots based and we desperately need a diversity of voices, not just in reading and viewing, but also in telling the stories.
Tell me about a few headlining zines.
Our all time favourites are Aqui’s Periods which features first-hand narrations of first experiences of periods by many women; fan zines about Patti Smith, Che, Savitri Bai Phule and Bhagat Singh; Que Suerte one of the oldest zines from Spain and The Chapess, a quarterly zine from UK, featuring all women writers.
Where do you think India stands when it comes to independent publishing?
Comparatively looking at the zine culture and zines from elsewhere in the world, a lot seems to be missing here. The older small-scale, grass-roots based publishing houses have shut down. Everybody seems to be excited about some resurgence in zine culture here, maybe due to more exposure to protests elsewhere in the world via the internet, but with all this resurgence there is a clear danger that most of it is impotent, as it is just riding the wave rather than truly putting out something utterly personal and consistent. We have already seen how 'street art' has failed in this country although it is so very much celebrated and funded and written about, independent publishing seems to be getting on the same road. Let’s hope we hear more voices of all kind.
What does 2017 hold for you? Which city are you traveling to next?
We plan to take it to atleast six more cities. After Kochi we are back in Bombay and then onwards to Bangalore, Delhi, Goa, Pune, Hyderabad and any other cities that invite and host us. At every showing we will keep adding new zines. The collection will eventually rest at the Underground Bookhouse here in Mumbai. In addition to this, we are consistently making new zines too.
Finally, we need help, towards setting up this permanent zine-library. We have already put all we can into it, and there is more required, both monetary and other resources, so here's an earnest request to all to please participate, in the true spirit of the D-I-Y culture. There is a need for an independent bookstore now more than ever, and we are doing it. The Underground Bookhouse has been set-up, but it needs help from all who believe in the idea.
You Deserve to D.I.Y will be open till the 11th of May, at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai. Find out more here.
Text Ritupriya Basu