The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Saga of a tenacious octogenarian bookseller

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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Saga of a tenacious octogenarian bookseller

D.V.L Padma Priya

-Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Achiever: R.N. Acharya, the man behind the success of the popular bookstore Kadambi.

HYDERABAD: A tall, lanky man of 82 years greets you with a smile as you enter Kadambi bookstore. A bookworm’s haven, Kadambi is Andhra Pradesh’s oldest bookstore established by Ramakrishna Narsing Acharya in 1946. Initially opened in a garage in Marredpally, it soon became a part of the city’s changing landscape.

Like a character in a book, Acharya is a story in himself.

His mother died at the age of 31 and for a period of 10 years his father vanished leaving his four sons to fend for themselves. It was by accident that he landed in Hyderabad.

Acharya began his career at the age of 23, as a bookseller by selling fiction books. Soon he was hired to deliver The Hindu and created a record by selling 300 papers in a day. He also helped form a hawkers union in the city.

He recalls how in the initial days he hardly sold anything and it was only through word of mouth that his shop gained recognition. He soon moved to a shop opposite clock tower where he sold books for over 50 years before his shop was demolished for road widening.

R.N.Acharya and Kadambi are synonymous. Ask him about himself and he talks more about his life as a bookseller. “I have hardly made any money as I put everything back into books,” he says. Does he feel threatened by the big bookstores? “ No, not at all, I have lot of goodwill and I have customers from as far as Banjara Hills coming to my bookstore to buy books,” he says.

A staunch believer in astrology, nothing has hindered this spirited old man to give up his passion. “I believe that knowledge should be shared amongst others and I don’t see lack of money as a big hurdle,” he says. Acharya recently won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the K P Jyotish Bandhu for stocking an extensive collection of books on astrology. “Nowadays people are reading many genres of books from religion to history,” he says having seen the readers’ taste change over six decades.

This brave heart has survived the changing times and had sold books which were banned such as Lolita, Nine Hours to Rama and many more. Someone who can boast of regular correspondence with literary greats such as Somerset Maugham, Harold Robbins and others, he generously gives away books freely to schools. “Profit is not my motive but people acquiring knowledge is,” he says.

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