In 1944 Malhotra had taken up an academic position in Kashmir, dreaming of a literary life spent amidst books, when he realised that a professor’s salary was not enough to satiate his love for literature. “Good books were mostly unaffordable because of their expenses and I felt it was grossly unfair,” he reminisces. It was then that the idea of publishing books at affordable rates came to mind.

It was while on a tour to Europe in 1956, that he chanced upon paperback editions started by Penguin’s Allen Lane and Malhotra came back, buoyant with dreams of a publication revolution in India.

In 1958, his fledging dream took wings: Hind Pocket Books was born with 6,000 copies of 10 publications by leading authors, priced at a never-before Re 1. The books were a sell-out in three weeks, and Malhotra went on to publish another 30,000. The paperback revolution had come to India.

This year, Hind Paperback celebrates 50 years. A lot of things have changed — the publishing house, along with its later counterpart, Full Circle, now concentrates on publishing books on self-help and mind-body wellness books. There’s a new person at the helm as well. Malhotra’s 26-year-old grand-daughter Priyanka now looks after the affairs at their Jorbagh Office, with able guidance from her father Shekhar. “I was about 12 or 13 when I started coming to the office and doing illustrations for some of the special edition books. The office was then in Shahadra and my sister and I would spend hours sketching in the lawns. A lot has changed since then,” says Priyanka.

The challenges too have grown in the last few years, since she took over. “With so many foreign publications coming into the market, it’s difficult maintaining a status quo. Convincing Indian authors to go for Indian publishing houses rather than foreign ones is a task, as is matching their pay scales,” says Priyanka.