Pune, 10 December 2025: Pune witnessed an extraordinary display of reading culture as the campaign ‘Silence… Pune Is Reading’ received an overwhelming response from citizens across the city and beyond. The initiative was organised to strengthen reading habits and promote Pune as the “City of Books.”
By evening, over 1.35 lakh people had uploaded photographs of themselves reading, pushing the campaign closer to a potential world record. Participation poured in not only from Pune but also from across Maharashtra, including senior political leaders.
The campaign was held on Tuesday between 11 am and 12 noon as a build-up to the Pune Book Festival, which will be organised by the National Book Trust from December 13 to 21 at Fergusson College grounds.
During this one-hour window alone, 70,238 citizens uploaded their reading photos, including 36,523 women and 33,715 men. The highest participation came from youth in the 17–22 age group.
These uploaded images will be used to form the phrase “Silence… Pune Is Reading” for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records. The record attempt is being supported by the Kohinoor Group.
Reading activities were seen at schools, colleges, universities, metro stations, railway stations, bus stops, religious places, libraries, IT offices, government buildings, industries, and social organisations.
Even as the state legislature session was underway in Nagpur, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, along with other representatives, joined the reading drive.
Rajesh Pandey, Chief Organiser of the Pune Book Festival, said that the response exceeded all expectations. He stated that nearly 10,000 photos showed group reading activities in schools, colleges, and social organisations, with some images featuring around 100 readers in a single frame. Overall, the number of participants who took part in reading during the campaign has crossed 7.5 lakh, he added.
A touching highlight of the campaign was the participation of 90-year-old Usha Prabhakar Godse, who continues to read without glasses. Though her early life in a village limited access to books and her nursing career at Sassoon Hospital left little time for reading, she returned to her passion after retirement.
According to her son Ajit Godse, she has now read over 700 books across various subjects, becoming an inspiration for readers of all ages.
