The boy who lives

For those of you who have read Harry Potter (one of my passions) the above line is a changed form of the title of the starting chapter. This chapter involved his aunt, uncle, Professors McGonnagal (please forgive my spelling), Dumbledore and Hagrid. This also happens to be the chapter I read exactly five years back; in the late hours of November 15, 2003. The book that was in my hands was a result of the best media campaign I have witnessed till date for a book (According to me the ideas superseded even those employed in the original potter campaign). Again like Dumbledore's Pensieve I must take the scene back a few years as I want to share the story of publicity of "Harry Potter aur Paras Pathar" with you(only in case you don't remember it.)

The story starts on the eve of all hallows (October 31) of the year 2003. It was Saturday and those days Dainik Bhaskar (I hope everyone knows this paper they proclaim to be India's second largest read daily.) used to carry a special page containing suspense stories and stories about supernatural phenomena. On that page there was an article about Nicholas Flamel.(For those who don't know he was a real person who found acclaim due to the rumors of possession of the Philosophers stone.) The article was basically a biography of Flamel which can be found on Wikipedia. The interesting point about the write-up (this I figured out later) was that Flamel was portrayed as a character from Harry potter series and accompanying pictures were of Harry and Dumbledore(Daniel Radcliffe and Sir Richard Harris Actually.) The last line said that if Flamel is alive these days he will be enjoying the stories of Harry Potter. Sunday was an off day for papers (Saturday being diwali) and Monday's paper carried a half page advertisement of the Hindi translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter aur Paras Pathar") which was being marketed by new era publications; a subsidiary of DB corp ltd. The book was to be released on Nov 14 2003.

This was followed by a write up on JK Rowling in the women's supplement (madhurima) on Wednesday again carrying a picture of Dan Radcliffe. On Thursday there was news on the front page of the paper giving details about the book like the number of pages translator price and all the news also said that it will be released by the hands of LK Adavani (then deputy prime minister.)

Friday's Children supplement Bal Bhaskar carried a two page feature about the magical world of Harry Potter. And the coming week contained various news about the book.

The book was finally released on 14^th and I got my hands on it on 15^th. But the thing I wanted to emphasize is how a the articles in a newspaper were used for the purpose of indirect publicity. But the book did not did as good as was expected by the people managing the paper so book 2 "chamber of secrets" was released without any hype on July 5,2005.This was marketed by full circle India Ltd. The news relating to its released was published only in the local edition of The Times of India. Funny na.

Hope you liked this on.

So until I find another idea to write upon.

Take care

J