India / 4.3 kg gold, 8,376 books, 38 ACs among movable assets in Jayalalithaa's house

Chennai: That former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was a voracious reader is legendary by now, but little did people know that the late leader’s personal library had a fabulous collection of over 8,000 books cutting across genres.

Jayalalithaa, who died on December 5, 2016, following 75 days of hospitalisation, had been vocal about her love for books during interviews with various publications and television media outlets, first as an actor and later as a successful politician.

To be precise, 8,376 books that Jayalalithaa collected over the years had adorned her personal library on the first floor of her palatial Poes Garden bungalow overlooking her bedroom. The number is now in the public domain, thanks to a count of her movable properties taken by the state government officials as part of the process to acquire the sprawling mansion.

Besides books, 4.37 kg of gold, 601.42 grams of silver, 11 television sets, 38 air conditioners, 10 refrigerators, 653 documents, and 253 stationery items are among the 32,721 items that are part of ‘Veda Nilayam’.

These details are part of a gazette notification issued by the Tamil Nadu government taking over the bungalow to convert it into a memorial for Jayalalithaa. The government had last week deposited Rs 67.9 crore before a civil court as compensation for acquiring the mansion.

The number of books, which were an integral part of her personal library, gives a sneak peek into one of Jayalalithaa’s favourite past-times. Senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh, who had covered Jayalalithaa since her entry into politics in the early 1980s, told DH that the late leader’s personal library was a sight to watch in itself.

“I am an introvert. Between the shots, I would go to a corner and start reading my book. People would call me arrogant, but it did not matter to me as I loved my books,” Singh quoted Jayalalithaa as having told him in one of the interviews.

Books, in a way, helped her overcome loneliness she felt, Singh said, adding that the late chief minister would speak about her love for books in almost every interaction that they had.

Having inculcated the habit of reading books since her childhood, Jayalalithaa had told Rediff.com in an interview in 1998 that there was practically no subject in which she was not interested.

“Even when I was acting in films, there used to be some time in between shots, I always used to carry books with me to the studios, and when I wasn't required, when the lighting was being done for the next shot, I would sit quietly by myself in a corner. Probably all that reading is coming in use today,” she had told the web portal.