How a man’s 5-district hunt for a photo became a 40-year publishing journey

In the 1980s, S Chandrasekharan travelled across five Tamil Nadu districts to find one photo — communist leader Singaravelar’s — for a book wrapper. There was no Google then, only people and leads.

He found it. The book was published. That search became his life’s work. Starting Saravana Balu Publications in 1988 — named after his sons — after his friend, Marxist scholar Ko Kesavan, was rejected by mainstream Tamil publishers, Chandrasekharan has since published around 40 titles on politics, caste, Periyar and communism.

Built alongside jobs in government colleges and banking and funded from his savings, his publishing was never just business. The ideology was the reason.