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Prasar, A Little World of Books | Image credit: Urvish Kothari

Not only was it popular among Bhavnagar locals, Prasar soon began to attract book-lovers from all over Gujarat and beyond. More often than not, one left not only with an armload of books but also with the feeling that one had acquired a new friend. If a visitor lingered long enough, Meghani, clad in his trademark khadi kurta, would gently approach them and check if he could help them track down their book interests. Prasar had an open-shelf policy, an anachronism in its early decades, and customers could freely access and browse books. The courtyard of Prasar overflowed with potted plants while a separate section in Prasar was devoted to folk art. Prasar also reflected Meghani’s other loves: nature and handicrafts. Badheka died before he could occupy the house, and its later reinvention as a bookshop seemed appropriate to Meghani. He was also a prolific writer who published over 200 books for children. Situated in the heart of Bhavnagar, Prasar was located in a large bungalow built in 1938 for Gijubhai Badheka, an educator who pioneered major reforms in child education in India. As the very name – Prasar – suggested, Meghani was a man on a mission: a mission to spread and broaden a culture of reading in the Gujarati world. Located on western coastline of the Gulf of Cambay near the historic port of Ghogha, it was once the capital of a large princely state with its own publishing tradition and printing infrastructure.īy the 1970s, Bhavnagar had been relegated to the sidelines of the Gujarati publishing world, which was centred around the north-south axis between Ahemdabad and Mumbai. In 1972, a young librarian named Jayant Meghani started a bookshop named Prasar in the city of Bhavnagar.