Beginning Thursday, Ranga Shankara will host an open library showcasing classic from across cultures
Beginning Thursday, Ranga Shankara will host an open library showcasing classic from across cultures
Kalidasa to Kipling: That's what you'll find at the Ranga Shankara classics festival this week. And we're talking books, not theatre.
From November 19 till November 23, Penguin Books India will present over 1,500 classics from all across the world at an open library.u00a0
"It is important that the space in which a library such as this is hosted have a history of being associated with ideas and arts," says R Sivapriya, Senior Commissioning Editor, Penguin Books India. "So Ranga Shakara is perfect and most appropriate space for a Classics library."
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SPEAKING VOLUMES: Delhi book lovers browse at a classics festival similar to the one Ranga Shankara is hosting in Bangalore this week |
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Timeless classicsPenguin is selling the classics at a 20 per cent concession to schools and institutions. For individuals, the discount is 10 per cent. "Coffee and conversation provide the right ambience for flipping through these books," says R Sivapriya.
u00a0"This is an opportunity to celebrate this fabulous list of books-histories, novels, short stories, poems, epics, travelogues, fantasies and philosophies," says Sivapriya.
The open-library, a popular concept in the West also allows the reader to choose their favourites from the shelves and browse through them while enjoying a cup of hot coffee and chatting with friends.
Moreover, for book lovers, the five-day long event will be a 'treasure house' of books, which are not easily accessible.
u00a0"This will also bring out all those classics that are not easily available elsewhere," says Gayathri Krishna, member of Managing Committee at Ranga Shankara. "There are readers who don't know where to get these classics. There is also a captive audience in Ranga Shankara, who will be exposed to it."
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Books especially from the classic period and considered classics for various reasons like aesthetic, social, cultural and political are chosen for this library. The list also includes a collection of Indian classics like The Ramayana, The Panchatantra, The Arthashastra, Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Poems and Stories, The Bhagavad Gita and many more.
A new Puffin Classics edition of 'Malgudi Schooldays' by RK Narayan will also be launched on this occasion in presence of Master Manjunath, who played the character of Swami in the television series.
On November 21, Prakash Belawadi, Anjum Hasan, Kirtana Kumar and Lavanya Sankaran would hold reading sessions from these classics.
"We always wanted to work in literature section, it just fell in line with our philosophy of bringing literature to Ranga Shankara," says Gayathri.
Apart from the unique collection, the library aims to encourage and pursue the reading habits of metrosexuals with more passion and delight.
"When the best books ever written are brought under one roof and celebrated people feel the need to be part of the great history of ideas in some fashion, many feel compelled to read at least some of the books that ought to be read," says Sivapriya.u00a0
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At Ranga Shankara, 36/1, 8th Cross, JP Nagar 2nd PhaseFrom November 19 to 23, 11 am onwardsCall 2649 3982
