It is very rare that political biographies made interesting reading, unless the persons are highly popular or highly controversial.
The publishers have to do a lot of publicity or deliberately leak a controversial part of the book to increase the sales.
Yet, one would hardly find the books being sold out on the first day. Even interesting biography of NTR written by retired IAS officer Lakshminarayana or that of Manmohan Singh – “The Accidental Prime Minister” written by his former information advisor Sanjaya Baru, were not the best sellers on the day one itself.
But, surprisingly, the book – “Naalo-Naatho-YSR” (Within me, with me YSR), a biographical sketch done by former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s wife Y S Vijayalakshmi, was sold like hotcakes on the day one of its release on Wednesday, coinciding with YSR’s birth anniversary, at Idupulapaya Estates in Kadapa district.
All the copies that were placed for sale in Amazon.in were sold out and if one would like to place an order now, it would be delivered only a week or 10 days later.
Perhaps, this is for the first time that the publisher Emesco Publications has seen such a huge demand for any book brought out by them.
May be, the books were bought by the fans of Jagan and the followers of YSR. Yet, it is a record of sorts for any publishing house.
Naalo...Naatho..YSR is a flow of thoughts from Vijayalakshmi, who has laced the narrative with the eloquence of emotions punctuated with the ebbs and flow of the life and times of her husband and the turn of events in the aftermath of his death on September 2, 2009.
Vijayamma understands what the world knows about the leader, but in this book, she said she had written some facts about the great leader which the outside world doesn’t know.
The book gives an authentic account of how YSR had aptly handled the various responsibilities... as a son, as a father, brother, husband, son-in-law, father-in-law, friend, leader... and how he used to mingle with them with ease and understanding.
The book is sprinkled with anecdotes from YSR’s life from marriage at a young age, the circumstances then, how he earned the name as a poor man’s doctor, entry into politics, his leadership qualities from student days, compassion towards poor, ebbs and flow in political life, education of children, their marriages, worship of God and winning peoples’ heart.
It also gave an account of how he had come under pulls and pressures at every stage right from being the PCC president to chief minister.
“His life is like an open book and is dedicated to Telugu people,” Vijayamma said in her preface.
