A beady-eyed man was furtively buying books at Darpana at launch of Gujarat issue of attenDance, 2005. I was surprised anyone in Gujarat bought books! I had done a survey before and in this city of millionaires there were only two, read TWO bookshops. It shows the index of culture and reading habits too. Bangalore had 30; Delhi being publishing HQ, 55; Bombay 15 , Kolkata 70! Chennai about 30. I'm talking of 2005, pre-Internet penetration and coming of kindle etc. He bought each past copy of attenDance and the new one too. He looked over his shoulder that no one was watching and quietly paid the monies. I didn't know him then, else would've gifted him most.Read more in the site
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I first entered India landing in Ahmedabad on 1968, and its reputation as a "banya city" soon faded away as I came to know people like Vikram and "Mirnal" Sarabhai, Balkrishna Doshi, Parmanand Dalwadi, Piraji Sagara, and many more like Sureshbhai Desai. But it haunts me that these people, many of them, are slowly leaving us and we only have their good values, and the true principles they taught us, having said goodbye to their amazing personas. But these gifts are a wealth for us to live by!
ReplyDeleteChristopher Benninger (author of the above note)
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