Once a bicycle bookseller, publisher Ganesh now basks in Booker glory
Bengaluru: Little did A Ganesh, a small-time bookseller pedalling through Mysuru with bundles of Kannada books in the early 1990s imagine that decades later, he would become the publisher who brought Booker recognition to Kannada literature.
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Forced by circumstances to leave home, Ganesh began his career by learning proofreading. "I was drawn to stories. I read K Shivarama Karanth, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Anupama Niranjana, even Phantom comics and Balamitra. I was crazy about stories," he recalled.
Over the years, Ganesh dabbled in nearly every corner of the publishing world — as a proofreader at the desk, a reader and customer passionate about Kannada writing, a cycle-based bookseller connecting literature to households, and eventually, as a publisher nurturing voices like Banu Mushtaq through his own imprint, Abhiruchi Prakashana.
By 1993, he was cycling around Mysuru, calling out "pustaka, pustaka" (books, books), selling Kannada novels like those of Anupama Niranjana, Triveni, and AN Murthy. "Just like people sold saris or newspapers on cycles, I sold books," he said.
Known in the lanes of the city as the man who brought literature to doorsteps, Ganesh would later be christened 'Abhiruchi' Ganesh — a name coined when someone asked him for a bill and publisher DVK Murthy (whose books he sold on the cycle) suggested, "Abhiruchi."
Back then, Kannada Book Authority was encouraging Kannada book stores. GT Narayan Rao, a science writer who saw Ganesh pedalling daily, helped him secure books worth Rs 25,000 under the Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara scheme. "That support allowed me to open a store," he said. In 1995, Abhiruchi Prakashana was officially born. He published works of Devanooru Mahadeva and Baraguru Ramachandrappa among others, including Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
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Ganesh's long association with Banu Mushtaq began in 2002, during a protest in Chikkamagaluru over Baba Budangiri. "She was detained, and activist K Ramdas and I went to speak to police. Once she was released, she gave me a script — a set of stories," he recalled. The result was Safira, Banu Mushtaq's first published short story collection, which sold out its first 1,000 copies and was reprinted.
To him, her bold, woman-centric writing — dealing with abandonment, clerical injustice, and social marginalisation — stood out.
"There are very few Muslim women writing in Kannada — maybe three or four. But her voice was powerful," Ganesh said. He went on to first publish Badavara Magalu Hennalla (2002), which sold 2,000 copies, and in 2013, brought out Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu, a five-collection compilation.
In 2023, it was expanded with 'Hennu Haddina Swayamvara' to include 47 stories across six compilations.
The reprint of 1,000 hardbound copies on April 30 sold out within days after the Booker shortlisting.
On May 21, with the prize announcement, demand surged. "We've placed a reprint order for 2,000 more," he said.
Ganesh was among those waited for the award announcement at 2.30am. "Banu sent me the link to the event. We got on a call about half-an-hour later — only for 59 seconds — her worried about missing medicines, but filled with joy. She said, 'Kannada and India won today.' I felt like a small-town boy who is overwhelmed when told about having won a big prize," he said.
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