An eventful encounter in an old, dusty bookstore

Photographer G Venket Ram was in for quite the surprise, when he visited a bookstore located in RA Puram along with his wife Padmaja, on their wedding anniversary. Tipped off by a friend, they first contacted the owner Govindaraju, who informed them swiftly that they were welcome to his shop as long as they could make it within half an hour. “We were told that the shop closes at 1.30 pm on the dot for lunch,” recalls Venket.

Even more curious to meet the man who spoke on the phone, the duo made their way to the tiny store nestled in a building full of buzz in a bustling part of the locality. “Stepping into his shop was like stepping into another world. The urban noises faded away as we entered this jungle of books,” he narrates.

Sitting behind a desk filled with books, Govindaraju greeted them with a disarming smile. Vintage books, magazines with yellowing pages and advertisements from bygone years occupied every inch of this garage converted into a shop. “The man told me that he had converted the space 25 years ago and that each and every shred of paper was personally collected by him over the years. It was a treat to browse through his collection of ads from back issues of Illustrated Weekly,” smiles Venket.

As Govindaraju bustled around the room to locate books on photography to show the couple, he unearthed a coffee table book by Ashok Leyland. The lensman says, “He proudly pointed to his name in the book, acknowledging that he had contributed some pictures of the company to it. As we flipped through the pages, I was thrilled to find some of my shots of automobiles too in that book.”

Before leaving, when Venket asked if he could click a picture of Govindaraju, he readily agreed and even asked if he was posing right! “In this age of instant gratification, it’s so heartening to see souls like him. He sits there quietly in the middle of a chaotic locality, guarding his treasures and more importantly, sharing them with the world. Once in a while, in our busy lives, it’s great to stop and smell the roses… or in this case, the musty smell of old books,” he concludes.