On his first death anniversary on February 24, a tribute to the creator of the series, Anant Pai, will be out on the stands. The comic biography will trace the story of the man who left  behind a vast and priceless legacy of learning and laughter for children.

Of interest to us though not at all a surprise is this comment:

Libraries are doing well, which points to a healthy reading habit in people…

Check out the full article here

More soon, too!

She visited Paris with her husband, Mahesh Menon, a Merchant Navy officer currently in India on a long sabbatical till March 2012 in connection with their son’s board exams.

The holiday to Paris was arranged through meticulousp planning & execution by Divya, our colleague in Strata Holidays, a division of Strata Retail. Here’s a photo of Mahesh, Seema & Divya, just before the winners left for Paris.

Seema & Mahesh availed a 3N/4D stay in Paris, arranged through Strata Holidays. They used to time to see as much as they could of the beautiful city, in a country that occupies the top slot for the highest visitors in the whole world.

Here are some pictures that Seema shared with us:

Here’s what Seema had to say on her return from Paris:

After the Initial surprise and excitement of having won the Paris trip through JustBooks kind of settled down— next was a complete feeling of awe on reaching” THE CITY OF LIGHTS”—The itenary was very well planned as we had enough time to visit quite a few places—we visited the Louvre—the largest museum in the world—followed by a city tour in the afternoon which covered all the important places around the city and by evening was dropped at Eiffel Tower and the day ended with a spectacular river cruise on the Seine leaving us totally mesmerized.The next day we were driven down to the Versailles palace –an architectural masterpiece— however we were not able to see the palace gardens due to the extreme weather conditions—on our way back from Versailles we stopped by at Notre Dame Cathedral,a gothic masterpiece where the Kings of France came to be crowned. In the evening we were taken for a city tour, the magic of Paris by night in a double decker bus—truly captivating! we were also able to see the Lido show—a delightful musical show! What— really made our trip so wonderful was the detailed planning done by Divya of strata holidays—she planned the trip to the last detail making sure we had a very exciting and memorable trip.Thanks a Ton Divya! Our Sincere thanks to JustBooks for having given us this wonderful opportunity—its been like a dream come True. Really appreciate the efforts put in by one and all at JustBooks & Strata.

Congratulations once again, Seema. Glad to have you on board as a JustBooks member.

For those who are envious of Seema, fret not. Your chance to win yourselves a dream holiday might come sooner than later!

Here’s a snapshot of the article as has appeared in Prajavani recently.

The Hindu, Mangalore had covered the event and here’s a report on the same here

The moment everybody was waiting for – Jayant’s speech – made the occasion truly special. What  endeared everybody to him was his talk – short & sweet yet laced with large doses of humour, peppered with insights and sweet with events / memories that struck an instant chord with many!  To say that he  is a popular person would be an understatement – people vied with each other to talk to him, get his opinion on books and movies, take their photos with him etc.

JustBooks MD & CEO, R. Sundar Rajan spoke briefly on the objective behind Munnudi and his hope that it would foster the love of reading amongst a new set of book lovers.

Here are some pictures of the event:

The objective behind showcasing Tejas was to inspire his peers to learn magic as well. At the show, Tejas demonstrated a couple of basic tricks but had the participating children enthused.

Below are comments from parents of children, who attended the show.

Thanks for conducting an exciting magic show. My son Vikram and his friend Sanjay were very happy see the show and now they are asking me to put them for magic class. Hope you will conduct many more such events in the future. – Lekshmi Nair

 I was happy to see my daughter Nidhi’s photo along with a budding magician. Also, I’m pleased to see all kids captured lively in the photos. I know how much efforts go in organising such events. Glad that your team has organized the event in a grand manner with all simplicity. We just loved it. Continue this spirited work please. — T. Anil Kumar

- It was indeed a surprising Sunday as the children enjoyed the magic show and even after four days they cherish the memory and narrate some magic tips. We thank you for conducting the magic show and we look forward for many more exciting events like painting competition and children’s day celebration in Just Books, Vidyaranyapura. – Sona Harish

A peek at the rapt audience:

You can see all pictures of the event at this link.

Strata announces the launch of our next experiment – a pure play ‘Kannada Library’ chain with a different (namma ooru ishtyle!) Kannada brand name: Munnudi!!!!! Munnudi as in ‘preface’  or ‘prologue.’

At Munnudi, 90% of the collection will be in Kannada and 10% collection in other regional languages and English.

The intent behind this initiative is build our expertise on regional content across India and roll out this offering in every city ( and more!) that JustBooks is currently in – 9 cities in India to date. Every regional library chain brand – one per language – will help grow our offering and address a huge mass of regional books lovers too!

Here’s the logo of our very first such venture, on home ground, so to speak:

Here’s our ‘Opening Shortly’ kinda banner being put up at the venue:

The address of Munnudi is: Ground Floor, #3/3-1, Diwan Madhava Rao Road, South Cross Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore-560004.

The place is behind Gunasheela Nursing Home and opposite to Krishna Rao Park. The other landmark would be just before South Thindies restaurant, along the same side.

We are opening on Friday. See you soon!

Here are some pics from both these library openings, Kolkata first: