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Parked. In Jaipur. A walking book fair.

They took off from Bhubneshwar in December with a simple mission, to spread the word. They call it the Walking Book Fair.

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They say if you love what you do you will end up doing what you love… this stands true of bibliophiles Shatabdi Mishra and Akshaya Rautaray, who left their jobs in advertising and publishing to follow their mission of making India read more. The duo travels across the country with their truck loaded with books, books they invite people to come and read inside their truck. And, in case, someone wants to buy the books, they get a 20% discount. ‘Walking Book Fairs’ is what they call the concept.

 

 

They own a bookstore in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha from where they first set out on their journey in 2014 with books in their Maruti Omni. Later, they got a truck customized and set out on their next venture in December 2015 with 4000 books of various genres. On Saturday, Jaipur became one of their stops on a journey that aims to cover 10,000 kilometres across 20 states in 90 days.

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Team ScooNews got a chance to meet this interesting couple at Home Café by Mr Beans in C-scheme where they had parked their travelling library. Below is a quick chat with one half of this enterprising duo, Shatabdi:

 

 

ScooNews: How did the idea of travelling library come to you?

Shatabdi:  We just wanted to take books to more people. People in small places don’t have proper access to books and we wanted to reach out to them, engage more people in reading.

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ScooNews: And what has the response been till now?

Shatabdi: Tremendous. We’ve made headlines even internationally.

ScooNews: In which city have you received the best response?

Shatabdi: Overwhelming everywhere.

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