The rise and inevitable fall of Joy Pocket Dictionary
In the age of smartphone apps, whatever happened to the popular pocket-sized dictionaries of the ‘90s? The Business Standard spoke at length with the current owner of Joy Dictionary, which dominated the market for around two decades, about its rise and fall
The red cover caught my attention on a recent afternoon stroll down a footpath at Old Paltan. It was a small Joy Pocket Dictionary that stood out from the hundreds of books by celebrated and amateur writers.
I instantly recognised it. In my school days, I always carried the dictionary with me. I studied new words and found my favourite ones. Truth be told, I often forgot what I learned, so I would then try to memorise the word's meanings again. This kept on for a few years.
There was a time when the Joy Pocket Dictionary was ubiquitous across the country. School and college-going students who wanted to improve their English language skills would always carry it.
The Joy Dictionary had to compete with its rival Indian AT Dev's pocket-sized dictionary and lived through the tough competition of the dictionary business in the 1990s and 2000s.
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However, it was the emergence of websites, and later mobile phone applications, which ultimately proved to be the final nail in Joy Pocket Dictionary's coffin. But before it met its demise and became a thing of nostalgia, the dictionary saw outstanding business.
The highs and lows
At the height of its popularity between 1990 to 2000, the sale of a single category of dictionary reached 10,000 copies per month. Sometimes, special discount periods like Pahela Baishakh saw higher sales.
"We would jointly make efforts to scale up the business," said Shahid Hasan Tarafder, the owner of publishing company Gyankosh Prokashoni, adding, "The binding and the cover were also attractive."
At the time, there were around 10 product lines including pocket dictionaries, learner's dictionaries, advanced learner's dictionaries, and Joy concise dictionaries. The company used to publish English language learning books like Six-in-One and Three-in-One. There were some religious books too.
In 1988, Shahid became the sole agent for Joy Dictionaries in Dhaka city.
He bought the copyrights in 2006. By then, the internet had already reached city homes, businesses, offices and cyber cafes in district towns, but people were not quite accustomed to it. Also, there was the factor of regular accessibility to the internet. As a result, the Joy Dictionary continued to enjoy massive popularity.
Shahid said that Joy's pocket dictionaries, as well as the medium-sized Joy Advanced Pocket Dictionary, were sold at the same pace. The other Joy dictionaries include different versions — English-to-Bangla, Bangla-to-English and Bangla-to-Bangla. The most popular of them is still the English-to-Bangla dictionary.
Gyankosh Prokashoni saw a boom in Joy Dictionary sales for approximately 10 years.
However, a gradual decrease in sales started to emerge. During 2015-16 and due to the emergence of mobile phone apps, sales started to take a nosedive. Fast forward to 2023, Shahid said that the number of sales of a single dictionary has now come down to 500 copies per year.
In 2006, the price of Joy Pocket Dictionary was more or less Tk20. Now the wholesale price is Tk40.
Every year, Shahid's publishing company publishes around 10,000 copies of Joy dictionaries to run the whole year. The first edition of the dictionary came out in 1985. Another edition came out in 1990. But the dictionary was reprinted in 2023.
Additionally, Shahid said more than 100 words have been added to the dictionary in the last decade by the editors.
The rise of Joy Dictionary
SK Ahmed was the original publisher of the Joy Pocket Dictionary. In the mid-1980s, publishing company Joy Books International started to publish the dictionary.
"He [SK Ahmed] produced the dictionary and I would distribute the dictionaries across the country," said Shahid, now a 67-year-old man.
"In the 2000s, at one point, SK Ahmed lost interest in the book business. He proposed that I buy out his company," recalls Shahid. "For Tk50 lakh in 2006."
"He is one of my distant relatives, and I knew the ins and outs of the market of the Joy Dictionary," Shahid added.
He had another reason to buy out Joy Dictionary. Gyankosh, Shahid's stationary shop which started in 1980 mainly with academic textbooks, became popular with customers because of this dictionary.
SK Ahmed Publishing Company was the first local private book publishing company to publish pocket-size and medium-size dictionaries in Bangladesh, Shahid said.
"[And] the quality of the dictionary was always good," said Shahid. He said that many Bangladeshi publishers later took the initiative and published dictionaries but failed to replicate Joy Dictionary's success.
Shahid also recounted how SK Ahmed had a printing press in the New Market area. "This man had the capacity to do something innovative. The Indian imported dictionaries received a blow because of the Joy Pocket Dictionary for its quality," said Shahid.
At that time, some Indian pocket dictionaries of AT Dev reached the market in Bangladesh. But Joy Dictionary put a stop to those imports.
However, the book-size Samsad Dictionary continued to reach Bangladesh, and to date, some still do.
Joy turns to despair
The making of a pocket-size dictionary is difficult. The bookbinders who once used to bind pocket-size dictionaries now show no interest. Shahid explained that the price of the paper has also contributed to the near-demise of the small-size dictionary. The profit margin has fallen significantly.
In 2018, the price of one rim of double-demy paper stood at Tk800 to Tk900. Now one rim of the double-demy paper is Tk1,700 to Tk1,800. The wages of the bookbinders have also gone up.
"The profits are not even half of what we used to make in the past," said Shahid.
But it is the weight of the disappearing interest in hard copy dictionaries that decided Joy Dictionary's demise. "In the past people would buy a dictionary with enthusiasm. That enthusiasm has gone away," explained Shahid.
Currently, they sell Joy Pocket Dictionary, (English to Bengali), Joy Pocket Dictionary (Bengali to English), Joy Nobo Obidhan, Joy Advanced Pocket Dictionary (Bengali to English), Joy Standard Pocket Dictionary, Joy Shabdha Shanchayeta.
A new dictionary on the cards?
Gyankosh Prokashoni has taken the initiative to publish a book-size Joy Advanced Learners Dictionary this year.
"Many publishers have a book-size dictionary. As businessmen, we have to always keep up with the competition," said Shahid, adding, "We have made some progress."
Asked about a plan to make a mobile application for Joy Dictionary, he said, "My son Abdul Wasif has gotten involved in the business and he will decide on the matter. He has some plans for something like that."
Gyankosh Prokashoni has not changed the logo or colour of Joy Dictionary till now, having only added their names as the publisher. They even kept the name of the former publisher. The dictionary was edited by SK Ahmed in collaboration with experienced professors and headmasters.
"I kept the name because it is a matter of courtesy and honour," said Shahid.
