The relatives of Thiagarajan, the founder of Thiagu Book Centre ran a couple of petty shops in town. "My father Perumalswamy Mudaliar had a petty shop in front of C.S & W Mills, uncle Subramania Mudaliar had a petty shop too and chinna mama Vellingiri Mudaliar had one more. Periya Mama Palaniswamy Mudaliar had a tea shop near the goods shed gate. Both father and uncle sold a lot of books in their shops. My father sold 200 copies of perhaps the first issue of ' Rani Muthu ' which hosted the story - Parvathi B.A. Our petty shop had a number of leading readers for its clients. Dr.Shanmugham used to come along with his wife and I remember them as ' the couple of the city '. Later father started ' Excellent Book Centre ' on Variety Hall Road and almost all the leading business people in town became its members. Several doctors and members of clubs like the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club were among the patrons then. Father used to sell a large number of newspapers and magazines in his petty shop and the people who bought them became his clients later. My parents Angammal and Perumalswamy got married in 1959 and the petty shop came up in 1960. Our kuladeivam (family deity) is Devanna Perumal and the temple is at Lakkepalayam, a dry rain fed village on the Annur - Odhimalai Road."
The relatives of Thiagarajan, the founder of Thiagu Book Centre ran a couple of petty shops in town. "My father Perumalswamy Mudaliar had a petty shop in front of C.S & W Mills, uncle Subramania Mudaliar had a petty shop too and chinna mama Vellingiri Mudaliar had one more. Periya Mama Palaniswamy Mudaliar had a tea shop near the goods shed gate. Both father and uncle sold a lot of books in their shops. My father sold 200 copies of perhaps the first issue of 'Rani Muthu' which hosted the story - Parvathi B.A. Our petty shop had a number of leading readers for its clients. Dr. Shanmugham used to come along with his wife and I remember them as 'the couple of the city'. Later father started 'Excellent Book Centre' on Variety Hall Road and almost all the leading business people in town became its members. Several doctors and members of clubs like the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club were among the patrons then. Father used to sell a large number of newspapers and magazines in his petty shop and the people who bought them became his clients later."
Perumalswamy Mudaliar used to sell Popular Mechanics, Kalaikadir and Membhalam in his petty shop. Advocate Ramamurthy used to publish ‘Membhalam‘ magazine for some years. The stories of convicts serving a life sentence were serialised by him then.
He recalled, "My parents Angammal and Perumalswamy got married in 1959 and the petty shop came up in 1960. Our kuladeivam (family deity) is Devanna Perumal and the temple is at Lakkepalayam, a dry rain fed village on the Annur - Odhimalai Road."
"Perumalswamy had a library kind of set up and he had a large number of books. His kind and jovial nature made him an endearing person. He had about 20000 books those days," remembers Anand, a former State Bank of India hand.
Thiagu, the son of Perumalswamy did his schooling at the S.P.Narasimhalu Naidu School on Mill Road and he completed his B.Sc Zoology from PSG, Coimbatore. He remembers coming to the shop from his school days. Several students from schools like Carmel Garden and Stanes would come to read in the library. Many of them are abroad these days. The members of Thiagu Book Centre (founded by Thiagu in 1980) live in almost every country in the world. Literary readers used to accumulate themselves at the T.V. Swamy Road centre of TBC (Thiagu Book Centre) on Sundays. It has now become the Sanikizhamai Sangamam, which meets on Saturdays. It is a time when discussions on books, literature etc., take place in the company of coffee, vadais, sweets and snacks. More than a dozen people deliberate and the meeting is a treat. Nowadays TBC has shifted to Captain Palaniswamy Lay Out, off Thadagam Road. He feels that the period 1980 to 2000 was the best. Thiagu works hard and there was a time when he just closed for Diwali and Pongal. The customers would be waiting during the lunch break for books.
The book Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran had just been returned by a reader, "This book talks about the founding days of the wax museum in Paris at the time of the French Revolution. It tells us the story of the revolution along side the purported story and is an interesting read. Those days there was an order - Ambulimama, Enid Blyton, Tintin, Asterix, Inderjal, Amar Chitra Katha, Commando and slowly they would move to Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and then go on to regular fiction like Perry Mason, James Hadley Chase. Some would go to Nick Carter and Desmond Bagley, then to Harold Robbins, Robert Ludlum , Irwing Wallace. Once a customer wanted John Greene and I got the full set for him. Daphne Maurier can be seen in full and Sidney Sheldon was a rage. We have the complete range of Alistair Maclean and Wilbur Smith too. Health Development Books and the collection of Mills & Boon were popular with women. One of my customers Kanaga Murthy from Odisha used to take the books by parcel every month. The first edition collection of TBC is with a French institution in Pondicherry."
TBC has more than 100,000 books in its premises. You will find popular fiction by many Tamil authors like Lakshmi, Sivasankari, Indumathi, Kalki, P.V.R, Ra.Ki.Rangarajan, Sandilyan, Devan, Ka.Sri.Sri, Ja.Ra.Sundaresan, Marina, Javer Seetharaman, Srivenugopalan, Bhagyam Ramaswamy, Sujatha, Balakumaran and Rajesh Kumar. Of course Tamil literature takes a priority too with authors who include Pudhumaipithan, Mouni, La.Sa.Ramamirtham, Janakiraman, Sundararamaswamy, Jayakanthan, asokamithran, Ki.Rajanarayanan etc., Contemporary writers Jeyamohan, S.Ramakrishnan and Konangi are found here. There are also books on varied subjects like medicine, gardening, bhakti literature etc.,
"Several writers, authors and thinkers have been our centre. The Saturday get togethers are legendary here. Roy Moxham, the author of ' Great Hedge of India ' had enjoyed the hospitality. The non stop discussions on books and the huge variety of snacks, sweets and toffees are an added attraction here. Much of the income generated was reinvested in books and we have about 5000 plus members with us. Oh, authors Jeyamohan, S.Ramakrishnan, Konangi, Tamilselvan, Pakshirajan Ananthakrishnan, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and C. Mohan have been part of these meetings. Our well wishers are Nanjil Nadan, Murugavel, Su.Venugopal, M.Gopalakrishnan, Padasari, Vijaya Publications Velayudham and a number of friends, " spoke Thiagu while offering a toffee from his collection.
Thiagu is a true bred Coimbatorean and remembers several shops, industries and establishments of the times, "I remember the crowded gate meetings of C.S & W Mills. My family members thrived as businessmen who ran successful petty shops. Some of my elders worked in the mills - Thatha Odhimalai Mudaliar at C.S & W Mills, another thatha Rangaswamy Mudaliar was at Somasundaram Mills. Coimbatore was always famous for quality and service. It extends to all sectors including food. Anandas Chettinadu in Gopalapuram, Sampoorna for its biriyani & chilli Chicken, Angannan Pillai's chicken roast, Darbar and also Bilal for their biriyani. I really enjoyed the kitchadi and roast from Lakshmi Vilas of Podanur." The discussion veered around some snack bars cum petty shops under the name ' Naesey Snack Kiosk ' which meant New Era Association of Educated Self Employed Youth.
The founder of TBC spoke about some of the well known Coimbatoreans and their families who are part of his client base, "Vanitha Mohan of Siruthuli, Nandhini Rangaswamy of the PSGR Krishnammal Institutions, Dr.S.Sri Hari, Kalyani Ramani Sankar, Sumant Ramamurthy of Super Spinning Mills, Dr.T.Balaji, Chithra Vidyaprakash of GRD CPF School, Annapoorna family, BKR Agarbathi family and many others." Thiagu is happily married to Kalaivani and they are blessed with Sindhu, Niveditha and Arjun.
The times have changed these days. Everybody is running behind time says Thiagu, "The parents are not allowing the kids to read anything else other than the subject books for they are running behind marks. Total marks are hundred but the parents want them to take 120 out of 100. This is the problem now. Its in the hands of teachers and the parents to regenerate the reading habit of the kids. While reading one can feel that someone is whispering slowly into the mind. Its a marvelous experience and is something which cannot be explained but experienced. A real book gives a feel and is an eternal companion."
Thiagarajan Perumalswamy started to visit the Excellent Book Centre founded by his father from his school days. He finished his graduation in 1980 and was looking out to begin his life. His father met with a health issue and it made him to begin work from Excellent Book Centre. He began to streamline it thereafter.
His father became alright and Thiagarajan took his chose his path by founding Thiagu Book Centre in 1980. However the genesis was the petty shop founded by his father and the sale of books which included magazines along with the issues of Rani Muthu. Thiagu Book Centre is a ‘ cult outlet ‘ for the people today. There is a sense of joy that is experienced while visiting the place.
Thiagu is ever present in the library. On quizzed as to how he is able to get the energy required for work for almost all the days of the year, pat comes the reply, “For a long time I have been getting calls from Thiruvannamalai. I went month after month in order to do the Pournami Girivalam. It happened for about 14 years. However I have been lucky to witness the ‘ Annamalai Deepam ‘ for about 18 years. Meeting ‘ Visiri Samiyar ‘ Yogi Ramsuratkumar, going to the Ramanashram, visiting the Seshadri Swamigal Ashram have really charged me. Lakhs of people witness the Deepam and crowds make it difficult to have a vision of Arunachaleswarar within the temple. Thankfully one of the Joint Commissioners of the Endowments Department was a subscriber of Thiagu Book Centre. He identified me in the crowd and this ordinary citizen Thiagu got a good chance to pray to Lord Arunachaleswarar from the ‘ Ardha Mandapam ‘ on a day when the world celebrates ‘ Bharani Deepam ’. These visits gave me the energy to progress in life“.
The Taraka Mantram, of Thiagu Book Centre reads as - "A child is a gift, gift your child the art of reading".