And finally, here is an app that makes book loving Indians sit up and read. The app, developed by Mumbai-based Amruth Deshmukh closes the chapter on avid readers’ perennial complaint that that they seldom get time to read. The app is aimed at rekindling the reading habits among Indians, especially those who are on the move. It provides the plot of any bestselling book around the world in multiple formats including audio downloads. One does not have to go to browse the bookstore for hours to pick-up the bestseller he or she was looking for and flip through pages to get a hang of it since the app gives you the narrative in concise and condensed version which hardly takes 20 minutes to finish for an average reader.
The genesis of the app has a surrealistic twist as it all began with Amruth telling the story of a 420 page book, which he had read recently, in no time to a friend while waiting to watch the latest Bollywood flick Bahubali. The enthralled friend, who was flabbergasted by the ease at which Amuth narrated the entire plot of the book, was the first one to broach the idea of such an app to him. This encouraged Amruth to share the contents of the books he comes across and read through the whatsapp group initially.
Amruth never knew that the small plot of his saga of storytelling to a group of 15 will gain fast currency and will touch a readership of over two lakh in no time. Later he has decided to take it to a wider crowd of book lovers through his app booklet – Make India Read. The app was released during the World Books Day on April 23rd last year.
As he started getting overwhelming response from avid reader for his app, he turned a new page in his life by quitting his job his job and decided to make reading as his full time vocation. He says his idea of launching the app was not to make profit but bring back the fast fading breed of book lovers back to their reading habit. He says his eclectic reading covering topics ranging from finance to fiction has changed his concept of life and opened a new chapter of world view for him and his friends.
Photo Source: rediff.com