Ruby Hembrom had already worked for big names like IBM when she quit the IT-BPO sector. She had eight years in Training, Learning and Development, and she went straight to the villages of Jharkhand. But now, she is known for her publishing concern for tribal literature, Adivaani, which she has put up with her friends, Joy, Boski and Luis. Ruby speaks on Adivaani, life and more.
On August 8 this year, the eve of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, Ruby Hembrom decided to institute Adivasi Pickle, a “prize for indigenous ideology, thought and knowledge”. In the announcement, she called on Adivasis to share unpublished stories of their lives, struggles and triumphs. From the submissions, a jury will select “the most relevant entry”. This will be published in August, 2014, by Adivaani, a publishing house “by and for” Adivasis, started last year by Ruby.
Ruby Hembrom left her well-paid job at a multi-national company, and now spends most of her time working on projects to take tribal folklore to the masses. She has set up her own publication firm, Adivaani, to promote the history of Adivasi struggles.
Kakoli Poddar, journalist with Magna Publishing, chose to feature adivaani in this month’s issue of Society:
Ruby says they want to create a database of adivasi writing of, for and by the adivasis. “We wish to document the oral forms of their storytelling and folklore. We also aim to narrate our stories of struggles, exploitation and displacement, in our words.”
Go get a copy. Find us on page 98.
KOLKATA: When Ruby Hembrom quit her cushy job in the IT sector a couple of years ago, she didn’t think twice, thanks to the greater calling to unite with her roots. The result: the soft-spoken yet aggressive Santhali woman is all set to publish her second book that is part of a series on untold lore of the Santhals.
To create Adivaani, a publishing house launched by a group of three amateurs to lend a voice to the nation’s indigenous population, months of human planning and perseverance were required.
Although we aren’t really the first or only adivasi publishing house in the country, we are thrilled to receive this kind attention from the media. Thank you, Saju Madhavankutty, from The Times of India – Chennai, for this feature:
Why don’t we have an Adivasi voice?”, “Why don’t we have a ‘for and by’ Adivasi publishing house?”, “Where is the authentic Adivasi narrative?”
Having launched an ambitious venture, adivaani is grappling with the realities of the industry’s stereotypes and the challenges it poses for the start-up publisher, the chief of which is Distribution.
Read the rest at Booksy.in
by Ajachi Chakrabarty
Time machine. That’s how Hembrom looks at her nascent attempt at creating a publishing house for India’s indigenous population: a time machine that documents Adivasi history and culture, fundamentally an oral tradition, before they are forgotten in the wake of modernity.
Read the rest in this week’s Tehelka and in their website as well…
adivaani 