LITERARY LUCKNOW
Ram Advani in among the shelves of his popular bookstore.
Lucknow, India ©Tom Pietrasik 2009
While working on an assignment earlier this month I was lucky enough to visit the Ram Advani bookstore in Lucknow. Situated in the corner of a large art-deco building that was once home to a cinema, this literary oasis is a gathering place for anyone who enjoys browsing for a good read. There is no attached Starbucks and the store is rather cramped but visiting authors, journalists and academics are among those who pop in for a reminder of Lucknow’s celebrated cultural heritage – much of it sadly lost during the India-Pakistan Partition of 1947. I was only at the Ram Advani bookstore for an hour or so but during that time authors Saleem Kidwai, Basharat Peer and Patrick French dropped in. Here is Ram Advani himself, about to chase up a book distributor for failing to make a delivery on time.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your incredible photographs on this blog, Tom.
Andrew
June 1, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Your photo-journalism covering Ranthambhor reality of Wild-Life Fat Cat Officers of Indian Forest Service, who draw their salaries with impunity without doing full justice to the cause of conserving the TIGERS along with FOREST IS APALLING TO SAY THE LEAST.
This double entendre is the NEMESIS OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY AT LARGE.
I THANK YOU PROFUSELY, for bringing the Reality to the BOOKS OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.!!!!!!!
…………REGARDS,……//P.B.ATHAVALE.,1114/8, UNIVERSITY ROAD, PUNE 411016. INDIA.//
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Pradeep Athavale
July 28, 2009 at 3:09 pm