Mandya: A man in Mandya has set a unique record of collecting more than 10 lakh books in 22 Indian languages and several foreign languages.
                                           Ankegowda in his ‘Pustaka Mane’ with his book collection

M Ankegowda, a 66-year-old, bought his first book thirty years ago at the cost of 25 paise. Today, he stands first among the list of personal book collectors in India. His amazing achievement has boosted him into the Limca Book of Records 2016 in the category of ‘Largest Personal Book Collection’.

Ankegowda has a diverse collection of books at his Pusthaka Mane in the Sri Anke Gowda Jnaana Pratishtaana at Haralahalli. His ‘Pustaka Mane’ has got 35,000 international magazines, 2,500 Kannada magazines, 2,500 titles on Mahatma Gandhi, 2,500 books on Bhagawad Gita, a huge collection of Bible and holy books of other religion, encyclopedia, dictionaries, fiction and non-fiction books.

According to Ankegowda, even PhD and research students visit ‘Pustaka Mane’ for referral material or to enhance their knowledge.

Though there are thousands of books inside, the building is lacking fire-fighting measures, dust-resistance window shutters and other facilities to protect the precious collections from termites.

He hasn’t hired any help as he can’t afford it. His wife Vijayalakshmi and son A. Sagar help him tending the books. He has spent his retirement benefits and earnings on books instead of buying property. According to Vijayalakshmi, Ankegowda buys at least 1,000 books every month from various sources.

Ankegowda who has won numerous awards, won the Rajyotsava Award in 2014, and the G.P. Rajaratnam Sahitya Paricharika Award given by the Kannada Book Authority in 2009.