100 not out!
The Hindu : “We have a great tradition of publishing in Kannada,” says Jnanapith award winning writer,U R Ananthamurthy. “Among others, Manohara Granthamaale (Dharwad) and Akshara Prakaashana (Heggodu) are renowned for their path-breaking publishing activities. I think Abhinava has tried and succeeded in continuing this tradition.”Behind Abhinava’s success is the sweat, toil and struggle of Ravikumar and his wife, Chandrika who started publishing in 1994.“The initial years were understandablydifficult, financially and otherwise. We were able to bring out only three to four books annually. Slowly, our efforts were recognised and a loyal readership was built. We published our 50thbook (Belegere Krishnashastri’s memoir, “Mareyalaadeete?”) in 2004. Things have become really fast-paced since then. In 2006, we brought out 22 titles. We are thrilled that Abhinava’s 100th book is ready for release.”All the projects of Abhinava are sustained by personal funding of Ravikumar who still works in a factory, and devotes the remaining hours to publishing activities. Chandrika, who has a Ph.D in Kannada literature, is also fully involved in Abhinava which has built an impressive list of publications including U R Ananthamurthy’s “Maatu Sota Bharatha” and “Valmikiya Nevadalli”, H.Y. Sharada Prasad’s anthology of selected writings, Sriranga’s critical volume on Kalidasa, Prabhushankara’s “Mandahasa Meemamse” , K.V. Subbanna’s “Namma Tavaka Tallanagalu”, C.R. Simha’s “Nimma-Simha”, and M.S.K. Prabhu’s “Virodha Vilasa”.Several collections of poems (including Ramachandra Sharma’s “Saptapadi”), fiction (like Abdul Rashid’s collected short stories), literary criticism (like H.S. Raghavendra Rao’s “Namaskara”), plays, children literature, and folk study have come out of its stable. Translation is another area to receive considerable attention: Rajni Bhakshi’s “Bapu Kuti”: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi , Eduardo Galeano’s “Memory of Fire”, Eric Fromm’s “The Art of Loving”, and K.G. Subramanyan’s book on art appreciation have all been brought to Kannada. Interesting works collating the thoughts of the likes of Noam Chomsky and Antonio Gramsci have also been published.“Abhinava has not restricted itself to any particular genre of…More
