Love knows no bounds and especially when it is the immense love for books
Adorned with books, the walls of the house of Sudhir Deo are inadequate to store the quality books and one can easily see through his eyes that sparkle when he speaks about books.
Sudhir Deo from city is a person who has a big collection of quality books in his library.
Started in 1968, ‘Maza Grantha Sangraha’ has successfully completed 51 years. The work however, is not just restricted to city.
Deo used to work at Indian Bureau of Mines and wanted to connect with the readers. To reach out to the readers he took a path less traveled. He started going to the houses of people on whose nameplate the name of the women of the house was also mentioned. This hinted that everyone in that house was equal. And that way today he has connected with a lot of people who love reading. This initiative was taken by Deo with the help of his wife late Aparna Deo who was a poetess.
In Deo’s opinion, quality reading is essential to help make the smart cities.
In his opinion, reading fiction does not help anyone and one must read the things that are not just informative but also help in the day-to-day life.
Deo also gave example of Ramkrishna Kavyam, a work in Sanskrit, where the first line depicts the incident which happens with Lord Rama, while the literal reverse sentence in Sanskrit, in the next line depicts an episode from the life of Lord Krishna. Deo informed that this book has inspired many artistes.
‘Maza Grantha Sangraha’ (Magras), also conducts interactive sessions of book lovers and has introduced many schemes which help people pick the book they love from any bookstore. One is depositing money in the name of the readers so that they can save for the books they want to buy in future. And another intresting scheme is that of credit cards for book lovers where they just need to sign the bills at the book shops (which have tie-up with Magras) and the money will be deducted from the deposited amount.
Deo feels that the aim is not to keep the knowledge with ourselves but to spread it through different means and hence the books are discussed over various sessions. Magras, also announces a list of 40 best books and guides people about the quality books that they can read.
In Deo’s opinion the love for reading must come from the heart and it is one’s wish. Nobody can be forced to read and that everyone has their own liking for the books. He shows his books to everyone who goes to his place and also recalls the days when he used to connect with readers across Nagpur.
