HELP to keep Apollo Books from closing down

My name is Wilmie and me and my family became very close friends with Apollo (and his family) for more than 15 years. They run a well known bookshop and library in Mahabalipuram. Two years of Covid has impacted the family tremendous. The sales of books, mainly to foreign tourists, came to a standstill. As the profit is needed to finance the library, the entire business is at risk. Loosing the bookshop & library would be an enourmous loss for the local community as this is the only place where people have access to reading. All financial reserves have been spend and the debts became very high so this crowdfunding is the ultimate remedy to find sufficient resources till tourism resumes.

Here below you can read Apollo's own story.

SUPPORT APOLLO BOOKS - THE ONLY INTELLECTUAL SPACE IN THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE OF MAHABALIPURAM, TAMILNADU, INDIA:

Mahabalipuram, a historically rich town appreciated for its captivating heritage tourism and listed under the UNESCO's World Heritage Site due to its cultural history of more than 2000 years — located on the East Coast of India in the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu. It has 40 ancient Hindu monuments and temples including one of the world's largest open-air rock reliefs: the Descend of the Ganges or Arjuna's Penance, and a historical account on Mahabalipuram — mentioned in the Greco-Roman Periplus of the Erythraean Sea of the 1st Century CE.

The Shore Temple of Mahabalipuram strikes a romantic theme and is perhaps the most photographed monument in India after the Taj Mahal. Mahabalipuram attracts countless foreigners as well as domestic tourists every year, and it has also become a site of cultural exchange — where the west meets the east.

There is no doubt that such a historically and architecturally significant place like Mahabalipuram requires an intellectual space. However, to this day, there is only one bookstore-library in the town and region around Mahabalipuram serving this purpose — APOLLO BOOKS - Exchange & Library started by Kumaresan Shanmugam (popularly known as Apollo Kumaresan), a native of Mahabalipuram from the Fisherman Colony.

Kumaresan Shanmugam was born and brought up from a traditional fisherman family rooted over nine generations in the coastal lines of Mahabalipuram. He always had a passionate love for books, bursting with curiosity to contribute uniquely to his hometown. Instead of following up with his family occupation (his three brothers got into full-time fishing), he had chosen to light the life for his passion for books, and the phenomenal result is the APOLLO BOOKS - Exchange & Library, serving people since 2007. APOLLO BOOKS, recommended by the leading tourist guides such as Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Petit Fute' and Stefan Loose's Travel Handbücher.

He started APOLLO BOOKS with just 150 books of his collection, slowly but indeed, now the lined up bookshelves have more than 15,000 books in English, Tamil, and APOLLO BOOKS is well-known among foreign travellers for having books in different languages; French, Hebrew, German, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, Russian etc... APOLLO BOOKS has become a social spot where travellers-readers from different countries unfold fresh perspectives and conversations on travel and culture.

APOLLO BOOKS houses varieties of the genre — philosophy, religion, current affairs, self-help, psychology, travelogue, biographies, history and many other prominent titles of non-fiction and fictional sections comprising thrillers, drama, fantasy, science-fiction, literary fiction... Many International titles are displayed and found in vernacular translations. At APOLLO BOOKS, books are available for sale as well as on rent. This system of free exchange-rent books has been effective in fostering the reading habits among the local community of Mahabalipuram.

Kumaresan Shanmugam has organised several social events ranging from BOOK SIGNINGS (many local authors have been invited to hold discussions on societal writings and also to provide a medium for viable intellectual space) to BOOK FESTIVALS with a mission to circulate reading awareness among the Mahabalipuram locals.

He has had six book festivals under the banner of APOLLO BOOKS' — focussing on CHILDREN'S BOOKS, ART BOOKS, AYURVEDA MEDICAL BOOKS. At the core of "BOOK FESTIVAL" is a social responsibility, where public readings, special readings for children, painting days on/with books, book signings and a lot more book events, driven to stimulate the practice of reading books among the local communities of Mamallapuram.

Kumaresan is in the process of translating his vision into a reality — specifically focussed on spreading "reading awareness" among the local children of Mahabalipuram. He knew that some of the older inhabitants of Mahabalipuram are not particularly interested in reading books, most of them have no bookshelf at home so he invested his energy and resources to collect and distribute free books (books dealing with Indian folk stories, Indian mythological stories, international abridged classics with illustrations...) to children in serving the purpose of APOLLO BOOKS.

The COVID pandemic has had a devastating effect on the whole world. APOLLO BOOKS is no exception to that — with the reduction in the influx of tourists due to the travel restrictions. The pandemic has stopped Kumaresan Shanmugam's business as a librarian and a bookseller. Unfortunately, APOLLO BOOKS is on the brink of closing down altogether because Kumaresan Shanmugam does not have any financial reserves to avoid the threat of shutting down the social activities of APOLLO BOOKS.

The goals of APOLLO BOOKS is to support the "Book Reading Awareness" to the Mahabalipuram locals and to facilitate the "Cultural Exchange" among tourists has been severely hampered because the closing down of APOLLO BOOKS is imminent now that the banks have stopped being kind.

With no further funding to run the only bookstore in the town and the region around Mahabalipuram, Kumaresan Shanmugam is struggling to light the light of influential knowledge in the lives of many especially the underprivileged locals of Mahabalipuram who has few resources to access the books.

Your kind contributions will help Kumaresan Shanmugam and the beloved community of Mamallapuram to keep APOLLO BOOKS' doors from closing down.

Read more:

https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g1162480-d2185878-Reviews-Apollo_Books-Mahabalipuram_Kanchipuram_District_Tamil_Nadu.html

https://www.thebetterindia.com/85852/apollo-books-mahabalipuram/

https://www.thehindu.com/society/a-mahabhalipuram-bookstore-is-an-adda-for-foreign-language-works/article22366902.ece