Book Censor Board

I recall going to a movie hall with friends to watch Shahrukh Khan’s Maya Memsaab movie released way ago 1993. My friends and I were in teens and unaware of kind of certification each movie were given prior to release. At the ticket counter while friend went to buy tickets, the person seated inside denied to offer. He mentioned, ‘You watch this movie while you grow up’. We never understood the reasons behind the denial as there were very limited TV’s to know about the kinda of movie. We went because it had SRK and we wouldn’t want to miss any of his movie.

After some years we had this knowledge of censor board and age restriction to viewers. While I was penning the book ‘Title is Untitled’, (launched last year in Nov) ‘Black, Grey and White’ (launched last year in dec) & ‘The Departing Point’ (launching soon) a constant question that kept me moving in my head was, who shouldn’t read these books? While I searched to know if there is any such certification and found that the books are categorised mostly at Amazon (section, age ��group) and this also depends on the publisher/author while updating information. I assume people are honest about mentioning right information. Another approach was the cover page revealed the likely content to be and choice for readers.

I decided to used similarly things used by censor board to help readers to know it is likely to contain adult content or views or theme. I’m not against teens reading it but perhaps feel parents/elders should read it and give a portion of that book to children through story telling format. This way the awareness of social problems can be reached to different age group in different ways. However I am not open for an idea of any official board but author self board would do!

I welcome your views and ideas to the article.