Are you a book lover? If you are, this is one road trip for the ages.
Satabdi Mishra and Akshay Rautaray certainly seem to think so – the two young Indians who started ‘Walking BookFairs’.
In 2014, they carried books in a backpack in Semiliguda (a small town in Koraput, Odisha) and displayed them in public places – like the bus stop or a foot path. This way, everybody would get a look at the books.
In Koraput, we met many young children who had never seen a story book in their lives. These children – and thousands like them in India – are the inspiration behind Walking BookFairs.Akshay Rautaray
The idea behind the name ‘Walking BookFairs’ isn’t difficult to figure out either. The duo bought a second hand Maruti Van with the help of friends and went to all the 30 districts of Odisha with the books.
(Rautaray, 34, incidentally, left an enviable job in the publishing industry to kickstart his pet project. Satabdi, 32, had been an advertising professional.)
The initiative was a grand success – following which, the duo went on yet another ambitious drive called ‘Read More, India’.
They covered 20 Indian states across 10,000 km.
And everywhere they went, book lovers, old and new, embraced them.
Of ‘Reading for Pleasure’
As book lovers and owners of an independent bookstore (also called ‘Read More, India’) in Bhubaneswar, Mishra and Rautaray believe that books are for everyone – not just a particular section of the society.
Sadly, we found that apart from a few urban or semi-urban centres in India, there are no bookshops or libraries anywhere. India has a very small percentage of people who read books and many simply do not have access to them. Many people don’t consider reading books (beyond textbooks) as important. We met many parents who hadn’t introduced their children to story books and these kids knew nothing beyond their school curriculum!Satabdi Mishra
Mishra, incidentally, also drives the now upgraded, swanky truck – that carries an eclectic mix of about 4000 books – everywhere they go.
India suffers from an indifference towards ‘reading for pleasure’, they discovered in their travels.
While school and college libraries they visited mostly stocked academic books or reference books, they rarely found a public library or a bookshop in most places.
“People have no real relationship with books – and that is a dangerous thing for a nation. To progress and develop, we need citizens who are empowered, who can think of solutions to the world’s problems. This can only come around when we read,” says Mishra.
How the Movement is Gathering Speed
In a bid to do as they preach, they undertook the countrywide tour to promote reading and books.
Mishra and Rautaray held public books displays where everybody was welcome to browse or read books for free at the venue. People could also buy books at a good discount if they wished.
We also had authors coming over to our book displays and interacting with the people in public spaces. Thousands of people looked at books, held books in their hands and read them. This is the biggest achievement of our ‘Read More, India’ tour.Akshay Rautaray
Sales aren’t their top priority, the duo – who first met at a bookstore and have been TedEx speakers together – insist.
They just want people to feel a ‘need’ for books. Little wonder then that they’ve been driving from city to city to put a book in one’s hand.
The idea has garnered a great amount of social media attention – as well as sparked interest in the setting up of physical bookstores for some.
We have been getting mails, phone calls and messages from people worldwide who want to open bookshops or libraries the same way.Satabdi Mishra
While these are telling ways to know one is succeeding, the Odisha couple has no plans to stop anytime soon.
“We will keep walking,” they put it simply.
(Runa Mukherjee Parikh has written on women, culture, social issues, education and animals, with The Times of India, India Today and IBN Live. When not hounding for stories, she can be found petting dogs, watching sitcoms or travelling. A big believer in ‘animals come before humans’, she is currently struggling to make sense of her Bengali-Gujarati lifestyle in Ahmedabad.)
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