Ratan Tata’s trusted manager Shantanu Naidu’s ‘Bookies’ project launched in Jaipur. this is its content

Shantanu Naidu, a mentee and executive assistant of veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, has launched a new project.

Naidu’s latest project, called Bookies, involves people gathering in public spaces to read silently. The project was initially launched in Mumbai and has now been expanded to Pune and Bengaluru.

Bookies will be launched in Jaipur on December 8.

Naidu announced the launch of the event and invited people to register for the event. “Jaipur, it’s time. We’ll see you at Jaipur Bookmakers on Sunday the 8th. Sign up for the launch below. So excited!” Naidu wrote on LinkedIn along with the link form for this event.

Apart from Jaipur, Naidu plans to expand his project to several cities including Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Surat.

“The whole essence of Bookies has always been to bring reading back. Reading seems to be so central to the human experience. It just goes back to the background,” Naidu said while speaking at a gaming industry conference.

He cited concerns about inattention and being distracted by cell phones. “We used to watch three-minute Reels. We can’t even do one-minute-and-30-minute (videos) anymore… You have the muscle memory to go back to your phone and be distracted the whole time.

“But the biggest, truest, most vivid content maker is your mind, your imagination, and there’s no better way to bring that back than reading,” Naidoo said.

He hopes to instill the habit of reading in people through Bookies. He believes that reading as a community will help develop this habit.

“Anything you do out of a sense of community is going to have a bigger push and get you into a habit faster than something you do by yourself,” Naidu said.

Shantanu Naidu, Ratan Tata’s Trusted Manager

Shantanu Naidu was one of Ratan Tata’s trusted managers and he mentioned this in his will. After the death of the veteran industrialist, Naidu shared an emotional post on his social media account.

“This friendship has left a hole in me that I will spend the rest of my life filling. Grief is the price paid for love. Goodbye, my dear beacon,” he said.