Shantanu Naidu, aka the trusted manager of Ratan Tata, has announced the latest chapter in his passion project - Bookies. The endeavor seeks to carve a space for book lovers, where they can converge on public spaces and read silently in peace. Bookies have gained popularity across Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru; now it's Jaipur, with an event planned for Sunday, December 8.

Naidu announced the event on LinkedIn, where he wrote:

"Jaipur, it’s time. We will see you on Sunday the 8th at Jaipur Bookies. Sign up for the launch below. So excited!"

Bookies was started with a vision to revive the love of reading. The campaign brings together readers from all over India with great eagerness. Recently, while speaking at a session in Bengaluru, Naidu described what drove this project:

"Bookies has always been to bring back reading. It seems that reading is very central to the human experience. And it's just gone back into the background," 

Naidu's vision is not limited to Jaipur. He aims to reach other cities with Bookies, including Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and Surat, to build reading communities across India.

Besides his literary efforts, Naidu has a very special and dear bond with Ratan Tata. According to reports, Tata named Naidu in his will, saying they had an extraordinary bond. As per a report by the Times of India, the industrialist reportedly handed over his stake in Naidu's companionship startup, Goodfellows, and forgave his education loans.

Shantanu Naidu graduated in engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2014. He further went ahead to take an MBA and graduated from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management in 2016. Naidu first contacted Ratan Tata through a letter in which he wrote down all about his venture to save the stray dogs from accidents due to the speed of the traffic. Remarkably, Ratan Tata responded to his letter within two months.