Apart from her famous last name, there isn’t much that is imposing about Rohini Nilekani’s presence. Her stature is diminutive, her voice soft, and a smile that immediately puts you at ease. But when this former journalist, writer, philanthropist and wife of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani begins to talk of her king-sized dreams, you glimpse the determination that has helped her successfully helm so many charitable projects.
Talking about how her journey to fulfill her dream of seeing “a book in each child’s hand” came true, she said, “When we set up Pratham Books in 2004, it was with the vision to put “a book in each child’s hand”. We wanted our books to be of the best possible quality, in as many languages as possible, with locally relevant content at the lowest price possible. This was the task we set ourselves. Of course, it was easier said than done,” she said.
“We roped in artists, writers, illustrators. We had an unusual distribution network: When Unilever sold Fair and Lovely door-to-door in rural areas, we sent our books out with them. People selling solar lamps in villages agreed to carry our books. We worked with railways authorities and state governments to get our books placed,” she added.
Pratham Books has 245 original titles, 1,573 books in different languages, most of them priced below `25. “Our dream now is to have more books in more languages,” she added.