>Usha is so engrossed in the
story of Ram and Veda and eager to know whether he accepts the American,
Thevera, as his daughter-in-law that she is oblivious to the pandemonium
created by her kids who are having a wild pillow fight. “I am an avid reader of
magazines and these kinds of short stories in the Woman’s era are a good way of
understanding the changing psyche of our society, ” says Usha, coming out of her
trance.
This is the era of the
Television, the epoch of the internet; the age of the Superwoman who manages
both home and work with equal aplomb yet reading magazines has not become
extinct as one would believe. There are many women out there who are hooked to
reading magazines habitually but the prohibitive prices of the magazines have
reduced the buying rate and given an impetus to the circulation library trend.
Interestingly, K.Appa Rao, a
diminutive, unassuming old man with a beret on his head and a genial smile on
his well lined face that has seen almost 60 summers, came up with the idea of a
door to door circulation library, catering to the reading habit of many women
and a few men too in the city, way back in 1970. He is still going strong and traverses
on his bicycle from his home in Bhavanipuram to nearly all the major colonies
in my city from 1 town to NTR
University,
Satyanarayanapuram to Patamata. He started out with this innovative idea when
he saw that his wife liked reading magazines and borrowed them from the
neighbours as they couldn’t afford them. Then came into fruition-Sri Taraka
Rama Circulation Library, named after the legendary NTR himself, as Appa Rao is
a great fan of his, and carries his picture in his wallet and has watched 350
of his movies till date. He charged ten rupees monthly when he started but now
with the rising prices of the magazines it has come to a hundred and thirty
rupees.
His homespun cloth bags are
like a magic hat from which he pulls out a plethora of glossy magazines in
English, Hindi and Telugu. You name it and he has it, from Femina to Good
Housekeeping, Swati to Sitara or Gruh Shobha to Sarita. His customers, spanning
the age group of 25 to 60, look forward eagerly to his thrice weekly visits,
when he refurbishes the old magazine with a new one. He visits Eluru too once a
week and has a number of valued customers there too.
Bored with the never ending
saga of Tulsi and Mihir Virani or Prerna and Anuraag’s nth marriage, Joginder
Kaur feels that reading something more sensible is better than watching the ‘K’
soaps dished out by Ekta Kapoor everyday. She says, ” Reading is so satisfying and magazines help
me hone my cooking skills and also keep in touch with the catty gossip of
Bolywood along with some stories and health tips too.”
For Krishna Kumari its like
killing two bird with one stone as she likes reading magazines and plus in her
own way is helping out an old man earn his daily bread. “Magazines come at a
premium these days and could burn the pocket, but borrowing them is a
pleasure, ” says Krishna.
Pramila religiously follows,
the travails of Iqbal’s son, Irfan and his wife Venella of Chakravakam and of
how Kalyani, the village belle is treated shabbily by her husband Ramu who
keeps her in his consort’s home as a maid but doesn’t deny the fact that the
idiot box is an obsessive addiction but reading is a welcome relief and helps
me to keep in tune with the times.
Sasi, a PG in interior
decoration loves to go through all the pictures to check out the latest trend
in interiors as well as fashion and especially as she is a pet lover goes
through the pet care pages with extra concentration. Her personal favourite is,
‘How I was cheated’ in Woman’s era as it exposes the modus operandi of
conniving people against the naïve and gullible female species.
Neeta is a busy entrepreneur
but squeezes out time to leaf through the pages of Good Housekeeping as she is
also house proud and even finds time to experiment with the exotic recipes
given in the magazines to tickle the taste buds of her family.
It is heartening to see that
reading is not a dying art but has been alive all along. Reading is like a silent conversation and it
is rightly said that people die but books never die and they are more like a
hospital for the mind rather than the body.
