By Azera Rahman and IANS bureau reports, IANS
New Delhi : From dawn to dusk, thousands of fans of Harry Potter thronged book stores in cities and towns across India to grab the seventh and possibly the final edition of the series by J.K. Rowling as the Potter magic cast a spell and held students and parents in its fantasy grip.
From the big metropolises to even the smaller towns, young readers were abuzz with excitement as Potter fans converged to collect "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" from bookstores that opened at the crack of dawn to make it one of the most talked about literary events in recent memory.
Oxford Bookstore, one of the popular bookstores in the capital, opened its doors to scores of excited muggles (human beings in Potter lingo) at six in the morning.
"We opened our store at six but people had started queuing up since five. And by people we don't just mean children. There were many teenagers and adults as well," Nitin Chaterjee, store manager of Oxford, told IANS.
"We sold more than 150 books in two hours and expect another 500 to fly off the shelves by the end of the day. No other book has ever received such a phenomenal response as this one," he added.
Engrossed in the magical world built up in the pages of the thick book, 12- year-old Shreya Ghosh was one of the many who propped herself on one of the cushions at Oxford after buying it.
"I have already reached the fourth chapter," said Ghosh, the fast reader that she is. "I don't want to know the end from anyone else, hence I want to finish reading it before anybody else kills the suspense on which two characters will die in this book," she said.
Not to be left behind was the western metropolis of Mumbai, where long queues could be seen at dawn outside the bookshops.
For 12-year-old Deepa Mondal, it was a bet with a classmate on the boy wizard's fate that drove her to wake up early.
"I have this bet with a classmate that Harry is not going to die in this book. I had lined up in front of the Crossword store in south Mumbai since early this morning. Thank god, I have managed to get hold of a copy," said a beaming Deepa as she clutched the prized book proudly.
"Though I have not yet flipped through the book, I heard that Harry lives. Thank god!" she said.
Hundreds of children spent a sleepless night in Kolkata as well to get the much-awaited book.
"I am eagerly waiting to buy one copy of the book. I am very excited about the story as there was a buzz Harry will die this time," said Manish Agarwal, an enthusiastic fan who spent the entire night standing in front of a city bookstore.
In the Oxford bookstore in the eastern city, about 2,000 copies of Harry's new book sold within two hours from the time of its release.
Chennai's bookshops also opened to huge crowds of waiting children who did not mind waking up early on holiday to get a copy of the book.
Penguin has provided 30,000 copies for distribution in the city's bookstores.
In Bangalore, bookstores offered cookies for famished fans, who were in the queue since morning and screened all the Potter movies in their stores throughout the day.
Landmark, another major bookshop in the city, turned the store into a castle to go with the mood of the Pottermania.
In Uttar Pradesh, despite being in the Hindi heartland, the craze was as overwhelming as anywhere else.
"It was a long wait, I could hardly sleep through the night waiting for the new dawn – a dawn with the new Harry Potter on the stands", 18-year-old Prabhakar Seth told IANS outside Lucknow's famous Universal Booksellers in Hazratganj.
"It has been the biggest rage ever. The last Potter series was also a big draw but this one has beaten all past records," said Chander Prakash, the owner of Universal Booksellers.
"I reached my shop at 4.25 a.m. and two boys were already waiting outside. It's just mind boggling," he added.
In Jharkhand, it was a similar scenario. In Ranchi, while most grabbed the first lot of the seventh edition of the book, there were others who are awaiting the Hindi version of the book.
"I cannot read English and am anxiously waiting for the Hindi version of the last three books of the series," said Manoj Kumar, a Class 12 student. Except the fifth, sixth and the last edition, the rest of the series has been translated into Hindi as well.
With only 5,000 copies on sale in Hyderabad, most people booked the new edition as much as two months in advance.
"I had booked the copy two months ago but did not want to take any chance. I wanted to be the first person to grab the book," said Subhash Reddy, a software professional.
In Kochi, children dressed up as various characters of the Harry Potter series arrived on horsebacks at a bookshop for the release of the book.
"The first Potter book sold lesser copies compared to the approximate 250,000 that are expected to be sold in the country this time. I have taken 5000 copies this time and the response so far is the best we have had in recent times," said D.C. Ravi of Ravi Books, who are distributing the books to all shops in the city.
The scenario was similar in other cities like Chandigarh and Bhopal, where bookshops sold over 200 copies in the first hour itself.
Disappointment engulfed hundreds of Potter fans in Orissa, as the book was sold out within hours of its release.
"We had asked Penguin India to supply at least 500 copies of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' but we received only 192 copies," Basudev Mohapatra of A.K. Mishra Agency told IANS.
Some bookstores also organised magic shows, calligraphy writing competition and games. Schools in the capital like Springdales and Vasant Valley planned discussions on Harry Potter after the book released Saturday.
K.P.R. Nair of Konark Publishers said that other than Potter there was just one other book in the past that had seen people queuing up outside bookstores since six in the morning.
"It was B.M Kaul's book 'Untold Story' on India-China conflict of 1962. That book brought out our inability to do anything in that grim situation and was lapped up by the public," Nair told IANS.
Having bought six books at the break of dawn for his 26-year-old daughter, family and friends, Nair said the Harry Potter book has the perfect flavour of drama which not only attracts the young but also the old.
For the staff of Penguin India, the publishing house which represents the book in the country, the excitement to the 'P' (Potter) day started the night before with many staying back in office and feeding voraciously on Potter books and movies.
"No other book has got such a phenomenal response. It's a glorious moment in the publishing history," said Thomas Abraham, CEO of Penguin India.
"We stayed back the night in the office just for the thrill of it," Hemali Sodhi, spokesperson of Penguin India, told IANS.
"For the sixth book of the Harry Potter series last year we received bookings for 160,000 copies. But this time the bookings from the bookstores – which is dependent on the demand for the book – crossed the 250,000 mark," Sodhi said.
And with Harry, the young hero of the book, surviving at the end, expectations are sure re-born of yet another saga by Rowling.