In the 1920s when literacy levels were not high, a man hailing from a conservative family in Cuddalore with encouragement from his school principal printed books and supplied them widely. Thus was born The Little Flower Company or Lifco, which is 90 now and still publishing books that delight readers.

“My grandfather V. Krishnaswamy Sarma would print books in presses that were under British control at night and take out slim volumes on learning English on his bicycle. The books were priced very low and if people could not afford them, he would give them for free. His lone aim was to educate people and not make money out of it. When he was in Secunderabad in government service and fell ill, he and my grandmother decided they have to do something for the public,” explained T.N.C.Vijayasarathy, Chairman of Lifco.

“After Independence, he started his own printing press and in 1950 he decided to bring out the English-English-Tamil and released it. It was just ₹2 then. Subsequently, he brought out dictionaries in other regional languages. We keep the price of publications as low as possible. The basic dictionary today is just ₹60,” he added. After the dictionary, there was a spate of books, including their still popular Great Little Books (pocket-sized publications on grammar, speaking and communication) that used to cost 1 anna each and are now priced only ₹10 each. There were books on how to repair and maintenance your bicycle, your homes, the typewriter and even one on how to bring up a child! He brought out easy reference guides for school and college students.

After publishing 728 titles, including 10 varieties of dictionaries, and despite increasing paper cost, Lifco wants to continue serving readers.

“We are heading towards digitisation. We plan to open stores where people can walk in, read a book and if they want buy one. My grandfather always wanted his customers to read books. We are working on a grand dictionary, two volumes of it,” Mr. Vijayasarathy said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Deepa H. Ramakrishnan / Chennai – June 02nd, 2018