Monday, June 1, 2009

A Letter To Friends


June 1, 2009

Dear Friends,

May I enclose a brochure giving a brief outline of Lokmilap’s work during six decades. It also contains a list of nearly 250 publications brought out by it during these years.

The special mission of my visit to USA this year is to promote The Gandhi Story published recently. It is an integrated abridgement of the only two books which tell the story of Gandhi in his own words: The Story of My Experiments With Truth or An Autobiography, and Satyagraha in South Africa. A total of 1,000 pages of the original works have been condensed into about 250, and twenty-four pages of pictures have been added.


For years it has been my earnest desire that these two books may be read widely all over the world, especially by the young generation. But their great length made it difficult to attract millions of readers. The lapse of copyright in Gandhi’s writings (at the end of 2008) made it possible for me to attempt a combined condensation of the two volumes.


Both books were written by Gandhi in the 1920s in Gujarati and, with his approval, translated into English by two of his colleagues. Now the condensations too are available in both languages. The Gujarati version’s 50,000 copies were sold out in two months because, though priced at 40 rupees, Lokmilap spent R 500,000 in giving it to students at the incredibly low price of R 5.


Now I have come to America to promote the English version. In response to my request, friends in AZ, CA, TX and IL have agreed to receive me and arrange hour-long readings from the book before small groups. Air-parcels of the book have been sent to the friends so that people can examine the book and buy copies at US $ 10 (including airmail charges from India). During July and August I hope to travel to these states.


If you find this project worthy of your support you also could invite me for a reading (I am going to be here till October). But many friends may not find it convenient to do so. They could then stock, say, about 30 copies of the book, casually show them to friends who may like to purchase them. Eventually they could send to Lokmilap a consolidated check for all the books. As soon as we hear from you, we can send you an air-parcel from India, to reach America within ten days. For any more information could you can email at mahendrameg@gmail.com.


Thanking you.

Mahendra Meghani