Pages from the past
PRASHANTH G.N.
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K.K.S. Murthy is full of anecdotes as he looks back at the 60 eventful years of Select Book Shop
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RICH INHERITANCE K.K.S. Murthy: `My father would pick up a book and read it anywhere' PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.
Conversation with K.K.S. Murthy on 60 years of Select Book Shop is about reminiscences. He will look back into eventful facets that informed his father's life of books and into his own book ties with him. He has such a wonderful story to tell that it is a pleasure listening to him. As he sits in his chair, writing out inexpensive bills for unknown writers, sips coffee and lunches, you wouldn't know you've spent hours with him.
Bill's legacy
It's been an eventful 60 years at Select, beginning from the founder's name. He was actually Kannimbille Krishnamurthy. "People would call him Bill. Over a period in time he came to be known as Rao because they somehow assumed he was from Andhra. And Kannimbille was difficult to pronounce, so everyone settled for Rao. He lived in some part of Andhra alright, but he wasn't Telugu," says Murthy. Select was founded by a man whose name wasn't his!
You'd expect in the normal course for K.B.K. to be in a big city like Bangalore, Delhi, Calcutta or Chennai. After all where are the readers, the literate and literary class? And where would the books be? So what was a book-lover doing in Kurnool? That precisely was the beauty of it. "My father was practising law at Kurnool. But he loved to travel to Bangalore. He'd be there at almost every auction and get books dispatched to Kurnool. He would also travel to witness Greta Garbo, Norma Shearar, and Kannan Devi."
K.B.K's love for books went beyond dispatch. It is the way he'd arrange them back home. Murthy, laughing, says his father's library was almost in the league of Sir Walter Scott's. "The library at Kurnool would have wooden cases to the ceiling. There would be ladders. You had to climb to get your book. That was his concept of a library. His lawyer's chamber was full of books. Except for legal books stored in a professional manner, rest of the books, photos and portraits would be spread around. He had his own way of displaying books."
K.B.K. Rao was highly successful as a lawyer in Kurnool. So, why would you expect a successful lawyer to give up his profession in search of books? His family would always be perturbed. But K.B.K. loved books so much that he was willing to move out of his comfortable abode. "Even though he had two houses, he wasn't too happy the way law was turning out and so he decided to move to Bangalore. By such time the Englishman Robertson had made a bookshop offer. He moved to a house in front of the Corporation here, where the hotel Pai Vihar resides now. It was a small house in which seven family members stayed. Even under such severe space constraints, his books were all around the house. And if he didn't keep two to three books under his pillow, he wouldn't sleep," recalls Murthy.
You can love books in so many ways. There is an unforgettable image of K.B.K. "His sister's marriage was on at the Sajjan Rao choultry. My German teacher Schnieder came in and naturally all of them gave a lot of attention to this foreigner who wanted to see an Indian marriage. The ceremonies were on and the priest called out several times to my father. We went on top and looked in all the rooms. Finally, we found him. And there he was reading Virgina Woolf, A Room with a View. It is an unforgettable day for me. He'd pick up a book and read anywhere."
What about Murthy? Initially, he didn't seem like his father. He was an aeronautical engineer working with HAL and Lockheed. "People had decided that I would never return from America and help my father." But by the time Murthy spent five years in the US, he was waiting to get back. "I'd be free during evenings. I approached Avenel warehouse to work after my working hours. No overtime allowance they said. I said I just want to watch how the packing is done. I saw an inspector keep away books from the conveyor everyday. There were copies of Lawrence Olivier and also some precious LPs. I asked her why she was doing that. She thought I was a supervisor. So she found out a dent in the books and said they were unfit for packing. The books went on accumulating. They said they had to wait for orders from the boss. I offered to buy them. I bought 19 such boxes at 500 dollars. I got my brother to transport them to Bangalore by sack mail."
French connection
Then Murthy travelled to Paris as liaison officer for aeronautical purchases. His father had sent directions to him to pick up books from the Siene riverbank. "I was amazed by his directions. I found my way exactly the way he had described it. I picked up the books and had them shipped to him." Murthy also got books shipped from county library sales at New Jersey.
Once he returned, Murthy would take his father on scooter everyday to the bookstore. And sip coffee at India Coffee Board. Murthy had all the time in the world for books.
And there was no letting down his father.
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