Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010961300300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

A novel venture in publishing

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: When the book Nilaviliye Kurichulla Kadamkathakal (Riddles on Lamenting) will be released at Changampuzha Park, Edapally on Saturday, it will set a new trend in the publishing history of Malayalam.

This is the first book from Book Republic, a group of Malayalees, living in different parts of the world and together in the Malayalam blog (http://book-republic.blogspot.com/). The author of the book T.P. Vinod is now doing a research in chemistry in South Korea.

He is popular among Malayalam bloggers as Lapuda (http://lapuda.blogspot.com/), the penname he adopted from the fictional flying island in Gulliver’s Travels. The book features 49 poems written by Vinod that were earlier published.

The team at Book Republic is trying to generate capital for publishing by collecting small amounts from the network of persons and the same network will be used to distribute the products across the world. One thing assured about the system is the reach. The practical aspects will surface when the actual product start moving across the network.

Poet P.P. Ramachandran will release the first book on Saturday by handing over the copy to Kavitha Balakrishnan. Writers and artists Anwar Ali, V.M. Girija, T. Kaladharan, P.N. Gopikrishnan, Sreekumar Kuriyad, G. Ushakumari, Sebastian, Anita Thampi, Vishnuprasad, Crispin Joseph, Sanal Sasidharan, Latheesh Mohan, V.K. Subaida, Vinu Pallippaadu, Aneesh and Manoj Kuroor will participate in the discussions and poetry session that will follow.

Also scheduled for the inaugural function is a Sitar recital by T. Vinod Sankaran and screening of the short film Parole.