The New Indian Express (2007 June 23)

Indulekha.com Enters Limca Book of Records
By B F Firos

KOCHI: It’s a befitting honour for taking Malayalam literature to the global orbit. The entry of Indulekha.com into the Limca Book of Records for conducting an online show of all the books of M T Vasudevan Nair is indeed a feat worth celebrating for Malayalam literature.

Dedicated to Malayalam cinema and literature, Indulekha.com held an exhibition of all the books of MT from April 18 to May 19, 2006. Readers from across the globe were able to read a few pages of all the books by the writer and leave their comments.

‘‘The response from Malayalis from different parts of the world was quite exhilarating. Apart from youngsters settled in places likes Bangalore and Mumbai, Keralites outside the country, especially from West Asia, also responded enthusiastically. To my knowledge, this kind of online show of books is the first of its kind in the country,’’ the portal’s editor Swapna Tom Mangatt said.

Though the portal had conducted online shows of books of Madhavikutty and cinema-related books, the one showing MT’s books created a storm with overwhelming response from the readers.

The portal features popular titles in Malayalam as well as Keralarelated English books. Only a few pages of the books are given on the site for fear of violating copyright. However, these few pages help the readers to take a sneak view of the books.

There are also other sections like Malayalam cinema, Kerala’s traditional cuisine, paintings by Malayali painters and video clippings of newlyreleased films on the site.

A journalist with a vernacular daily, Swapna started it all as a blog. Sensing good response to the blog, it was developed as a portal.

‘‘After quitting the job from the news daily, I thought of launching something unique and stumbled upon the idea of a portal like this. It’s basically an interactive meeting place where both the publishers as well as readers can meet for their mutual benefits,’’ she said.

There are readers from several countries, with an estimated 2.5 lakh page views a month.

Publishers can feature their titles on Indulekha, mostly along with some scanned pages. The portal also allows writers to showcase their books. Readers can buy books from the site.

The portal’s future plans include strengthening the video section and conducting more online shows of books.

(The New Indian Express, 2007 June 23)