Mangalore: Sometimes newspapers/magazines close down, editors die or are replaced, book-stalls fall on evil days and get closed. Institutions perish in various ways. Two tears are shed for them in silence.
Atri Book-Stall(Centre) that was established 36 years ago in Balmatta, near the main road in a busy commercial area, is getting closed forever. The epitaph is being written on ABC.
The owner, Ashok Vardhan, has expressed his grief and disappointment over Kannada publication industry and its future. He has seen many ups and down, as one who did not follow his father as teacher in service, nor his own son as a film director, but carried on a business in books for 36 years relentlessly.
People do not buy books to read anymore. There are few persons who purchase a Kannada book, text or novel, these days. The Atri Book Cente(ABC) will be closed on March 31, he wrote in a blog recently.
Ashok wants to spend time in wildlife protection as an ecologist. He is the son of Prof. G.T. Narayan Rao, who taught Mathematics in St. Aloysius college and science in Mysore and Madikeri. His son Abhay Simha is a film director, sys Ashok.
He had connections with the KIOCL mining, as an activist against harming nature. He has done enough work to protect western Ghats as a natural sanctuary.
He is now writing a Sevan Song for Atri Book Centre(ABC).