Totally cool, totally Kannada

BANGALORE: Kannada Rajyotsava is an important day for the multi-cultural citizens of Bangalore. The many Kannada Vedikes strive to put all the culturally fragmented associations under one roof on the day.For most Kannadigas, it is a peaceful day that they choose to spend watching classic movies on TV, listening to songs on the radio and reading poems written by Kuvempu. When all these come together at one place, it comes as a surprise to many Kannadigas when they hear about Total Kannada Store. This store which is located in the culturally-rich part of the city, Jayanagar, houses over 19,000 items under its catalogue of products, aiming to promote Kannada learning in the metropolitan city of Bangalore.Lakshmikant V is the founder of the 5-year-old store that sells exclusive Kannada items. The list of products includes movie DVDs, music CDs, Kannada books, a variety of gift merchandise consisting of Rajkumar clocks and watches, t-shirts with Kannada slogans and snippets of famous poems, along with many tutorial books and CDs. “When I was working in the United States, I realised that stores there sold every Indian language movie except for Kannada. When I inquired about this with the store managers, they said that they do not have suppliers back in India who would send them Kannada products,” says Lakshmikant, who then later set up the website totalkannada.com and started selling products through the online portal from the USA.Their agenda to spread their love for Kannada to the people is through the Sancharika Malige, a vehicle that goes around the city selling Kannada books and Kannada tutorial CDs. The venture is not just for the Kannadigas in the city but also targets the non-Kannada speakers. “The name of the store, which could have been ‘Sampoorna or Sanagra Kannada Store’ would appeal only to Kannada speakers. Since ‘Total’ is an English word it will also attract the non-Kannada citizens,” explains Lakshmikant.Kannada learning materials are available on the website and is free for anybody who accesses it. He further says, “There is always a 10 per cent discount on Kannada books. And for this year’s Rajyotsava, we also have a five per cent discount on our DVDs and CDs. Through this, we want more people to inculcate our rich culture and learn about it. This way, our heritage will continue to survive.” Translated works of famous writers are also available at the store.Total Kannada’s chief activity is to collect the many books and movies that have been released so far. They also publish Kannada books and make movie DVDs. Nanna Tamma Shankara, the book written by Anant Nag about his brother Shankar Nag has been published and movies by filmmaker B Suresha and Sheshadri are made into DVDs by the store.Though the enterprise is not entitled to subsidies from the state government, Lakshmikant, whose sole earning is through the shop, strives to keep the                       spirit going.