City-based Navodaya Publishers has downed shutters. The legacy of the iconic publishing house winds back through decades of intellectual soirees to the waning days of enlightenment.
Located on Eluru Road, the brick and mortar structure has kept a record of myriad things; of achievements in war and peace, art and science, exploration and discovery.
After 59 years of its illustrious existence, which saw dozens of books authored by famous writers like Sri Sri, Bapu, Mullapudi Venkata Ramana,Gopichand, Arudra, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Rachakonda Viswanath Sastry, Sri Ramana, Nanduri Ramamohan Rao, Indraganti Srikanth Sarma and Narla Venkateswara Rao, the thriving publishing house has gone out of print.
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“Initially, we set it up in Gudiwada in 1957. A year later, we shifted it to Vijayawada. People’s love and our customer-centric approach helped us strike a rapport. We would go any length to make rare books available to our clients,” says Atluri Ramamohan Rao, popularly known as ‘Navodaya’ Ramamohan Rao.
Known for the quality it offered, the publishing house has printed works of two generations. “Writers used to take pride in having their works published by us. But over the years, I realised that passion alone cannot build a business,” says a distraught Rao who is the founder president of Vijayawada Book Festival Society and a recipient of Visesh Puraskar given by Dr. Ramineni Foundation, USA. The Bapu-Ramana duo’s close association with the book house was known to everybody.
The biggest problems facing book publishers today are disappearing bookshelves. “A gradual downfall started in 2000. Competition in market and e-Publishing ultimately forced closure of the establishment,” he says.
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“Navodaya Publishers was as much a social centre, a place to drop in and see what was new among the book collection, a place to go and buy the assigned book. I can’t count all the books I bought there and still own some of them,” says P. Venkateswara Rao, an old timer.
“I felt a deep sense of loss as I walked past the racks,” said Jaswanth, a frequent visitor to the book shop, who stepped in for one last time after learning about its imminent closure.
“We are witnessing book publishers shrink in size and many bookstores have gone out of business altogether. Seeing Navodaya wane in oblivion is painful,” said Babjee of New Student Book Centre.
“Most libraries have seen their funding decrease and have dedicated more of their space to computers, movies and music. Signs of backward march,” rues Raavi Sarada, secretary of Andhra Pradesh Library Association.
The man who contributed a great deal to the golden era for book industry in this region, says he would continue his passion. “We have hired a small room behind the shop where father will continue to sell the small collection of books he owns,” says Mr. Ramamohan’s son, Sudhakar.