Lucknow:

On his 95th birthday, the much loved bookseller Ram Advani had told friend Pradeep Kapoor about his wish to continue visiting the bookshop everyday till the age of 99. Only after that did he want to retire and visit places outside Lucknow. On Thursday, when Advani’s mortal remains were taken to the electric crematorium, it seemed he had lived 95 years too less.

Overwhelmed with the response and respect her father received from the city, Advani’s daughter Radhika said, “The city and its people appreciated and reciprocated to my father’s warmth all his life and even in the hour of his death.” A prayer meet will now be held on Saturday, March 12 at the Hari Om Mandir from 4pm to 5pm.

Present at the crematorium to pay his last respects to the man who was his father’s friend and his own idol, Hemant Singh said, “I happened to visit a swanky new generation bookstore in the city recently. Despite its stylish interiors, it did not create the enthusiasm that Ram Uncle’s bookstore evoked.”

The modern store later asked Singh for a feedback. “They asked me names of the other three bookstores and I just wrote the name of Ram Advani Booksellers three times.”

Although he came to Lucknow only in 1947, Advani always remained a true Lakhnavi whose identity was attached only to this city. “Never in all these years did he talk about the sorrows of Partition or carry the pain of the events that took place.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / March 11th, 2016