Chennai Youngster Installs Automatic Book Vending Machines To Promote Reading
Driven by passion to place books directly in the hands of people, Mayawati feels reading habit will increase if availability of books is made easy.
Published : November 2, 2025 at 5:58 PM IST
By S.Hussain
Chennai: At a time when everyone is looking for a quick services, purchasing books has also been made instant by a 26-year-old graduate who began by installing an automatic book vending machine at Chennai Central Railway Station and is looking to repeat this initiative at other places.
Mayawati, founder of Sunset Hues is driven by a passion to inculcate reading habit among people. She selected railway platform as a venue to set up book vending machine as stations have very high footfall. Her initiative got a very good response.
Since people are in the habit of using automatic ticket vending machines for train tickets, water, coffee, chips, soft drinks, and others, a machine selling books came as a welcome surprise for passengers of Chennai Central Railway Station.
“I wanted to do something new and set up the automatic book vending machine at Chennai Central Railway Station. Since it was well received by the people and the readers, we have also set it up at Tambaram Railway Station. We plan to set up one at the Airport Metro Station in the future,” said Mayawati.
She said that there is a demand for such machines in the districts as well.
“So far, 350 books have been sold at Central and 150 books at Tambaram Railway Station. Children's books and story books are selling the most. We are replenishing new books in a rotational manner based on the book sales every two or three days,” she added.
She said her idea is to get books into the hands of the people. She had been thinking of setting up an automatic machine that would save work. She also said that she is making books available at lower cost than the bookstores.
Mayawati said even though the habit of reading has decreased due to internet, there are still many people searching and buying books.
“If we make it easier for them to get books, the habit of reading will increase. If there is a book at a place visited by a lot of people, they will look at it many times while passing by and buy it themselves,” she said.
She feels the time spent by people watching movies, listening to songs and watching reels on their mobile phones can be converted into reading books, particularly by people travelling long distances by train who do not have internet service at many places.
Deenadayalan, a passenger waiting for train, said the current generation has left the books behind. “Whatever they are looking for, they have developed the habit of immediately taking out their mobile phone and searching it on Google. Since everything they need is available on the internet, their mind and knowledge have not expanded. On the contrary, they have become narrow,” he said while adding that the automatic book vending machine will be useful for everyone.
Solo travellers on long journeys often have no one to talk to. In such situations books make the journey less cumbersome.
Even otherwise books are the friends of friendless people and they help reduce stress. Books not only improve imagination, increase understanding and tolerance but also develop the ability to solve a problem. Apart from that, every book has a new experience and a new lesson to offer.
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