In between hectic activity in view of the polling to be held for Karnprayag Vidhan Sabha constituency and while awaiting the crucial election results after counting of votes on March 11, Chief Minister Harish Rawat along with the Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay visited Natraj Publishers on Tuesday. located along Rajpur Road, Natraj is considered to be among the premier bookstores of Uttarakhand with noted writer Ruskin Bond as its chief patron. According to the bookstore owner Upendra Arora, both the Chief Minister and PCC president were in a buoyant mood as they browsed the bookshelves. The Chief Minister was seen spending considerable time in the section on biographies. Rawat told people accompanying him that he has always found books to be good and loyal friends. The Chief Minister also recalled his visits to Natraj during his own student days decades ago and appreciated the range of books in stock. Speaking to those present, Harish Rawat said that a society where the majority of people are booklovers, the atmosphere remains peaceful with respect and tolerance.
“The Chief Minister expressed the need to generate the love for reading and that steps are needed to be taken in that direction. While strolling around the bookstore, the chief minister was delighted to find that the priceless collection of old Gazetteers of Dehradun, Garhwal, Nainital and Almora by HD Walton and HR Nevill, had been brought back into print and were now available for the benefit of the people of the State,” said Arora, who later presented the Chief Minister a copy of the book ‘The Unseen Indira Gandhi’ written by Dr KP Mathur who was Indira Gandhi’s personal physician for about twenty years. Dr Mathur was one of the last persons whom Indira Gandhi met before she was assassinated by her guards on October 31, 1984. Arora further informed that popular author Ruskin Bond, the chief patron of the bookshop when informed of the chief minister’s visit said the State CM was an extremely lucky man as he possessed the lucky charm of a gap between his front teeth and added that it bodes well to see the chief minister of a State being a book lover and an avid reader and that he looked forward to meeting him at Natraj, his favorite bookshop in the near future.