From hobby to business, Indian trios open Leaping Window online rental for comic lovers

Gone are those days when people were satisfied meeting their daily tasks and deadlines at office.

Today, working professionals are constantly stoked by the desire to experiment with new ideas, to create new genres of products and services, and to innovate. Meet these new age professionals who went beyond their office desks to create a new window of opportunities.

Koel Chatterjee, Bidisha Basu and Utsa Shome are co-founders of Leaping Windows.

For those who love to devour comic books in their free time in bookstores, here is a unique service at hand from Leaping Windows - - an online rental service that promises to deliver almost any comic book available within 24 hours of placing the request.

Launched last month here in the Indian financial capital, Leaping Windows sprung to life in one of those moments where bookstore owners repeatedly shooed away die-hard manga fans -- Koel Chatterjee and Bidisha Basu -- out of their stores strictly following their "buy and don't read policy," according to lawyer by profession and comic book enthusiast Utsa Shome, the third member to join Leaping Windows, who is in charge of advertising, marketing and business development of the product and its service.

"The desire to start this was because we wanted to make comic books and graphic novels available at affordable rates for readers. Although these are affordable at bookstores, they are still very expensive," said Basu, full-time partner of the project.

A unique name for a unique service, the name and mascot of Leaping Windows owes its genesis to the following tale.

"The little brother of a friend of mine stood on the bathroom window with a towel tied around his neck like a cape, and then he jumped. Luckily it was the first floor! I appreciated his imagination and it inspired the name Leaping Windows; it fitted what I had in mind: after all, reading a comic is like leaping from one window to another," said Basu.

In classic comic book style, a delivery boy with a cape is the mascot of Leaping Windows, which targets an audience of 18 to 35 years.

"Although research says that the largest number of comic book readers belong to Chandigarh, northern India, what we have personally assessed is that Mumbai is more receptive than all other metros and cities," said Shome.

He said the project already has won 222 members from the city in is launch month of June, which he believe is a good start.

"The idea was to have a cafe-like comic bookstore housing all kinds of titles and collections but with real estate being very expensive, affording a permanent address in Mumbai did not seem cost effective," said Basu.

So the trio registered their partnership in Pune 200 km from downtown Mumbai and opted for an online library and rental service, instead, where readers can browse through the entire catalogue of titles.

The library and its books are hoarded in Mumbai from where they are delivered to their members. As of now, the service is available in Mumbai, right up to the end of suburbs, Virar, where the local trains terminate.

So what do you get your hands if you become a member? From DC and Marvel Comics to Asterix, Tintin and Manga, all the Neil Gaimon books, you have it all. A total of 1,300 titles are currently in store while around 2,000 comic books and graphic novels should be on their way soon.

The trio donated their personal collections of manga and other comics to the website. There is Amar Chitra Katha too for those who want to go back to Indian titles they grew up reading.

Members have to pay a minimum fee of 1,500 rupees (30 U.S. dollars) with a refundable deposit of 500 (10 U.S. dollars). There is no limit to the number of books members can order in a month though one can get his hands only one book at a time.

With a fanbase of 678 members, at the time of interview, Shome said: "The priority is to collect as many books as possible for their members. The plan in the pipeline is 'more members, more revenue, more books, and more members.' As the numbers increase, we will provide better and more affordable plans for our reader base. Currently, we source our titles from online stores such as flipkart, amazon, and landmark, apart from book sales."

Don't the online bookstores consider them a competition considering they are on a similar platform and medium? Shome is quick to respond, "No, they don't. There is a market and audience for everybody and space for everyone to co-exist in harmony; in fact, they are happy with our numbers on social media platforms such as facebook."

Although it is too early to talk about the scalability of the model, Shome is quick to point out that they have already plans for phase 2, 3 and 4.

"Currently, the community section of the site is under construction and we are concentrating to get it up, live and running. It will be one place where everyone -- publishers, illustrators, readers and writers -- can come together. In phase 3, we have plans to establish the cafe, while in phase 4 we hope to make our foray into the publishing space."

From comic book lovers to owners of a product and service that seeks to unite the dispersed comic community of India, the trio has successfully let their ideas leap into a reality.

Source: Xinhua