Since 1947, a Goan family's stationery store is a household name in Kottayam

It's no match for the glitzy rows of articles stacked up on shelves in a mall. A Kottayam stationery shop, as old as Independent India, still has a way of pulling out surprises from the old-styled, glass cabinets. The crammed interior of the R S Prabhu Stationery on KK Road in Kottayam with its stained walls and honey-mesh grille roof squeezes in pretty much everything tagged as stationery or maybe even more.

Slate pencils? Check. Fountain pens? Of course. Brown paper covers, geometry boxes, ink bottles, calligraphy nibs? All here. But what really makes this shop special isn’t just what’s on the shelves. It’s the person behind the counter.

RS Murali Prabhu, the third-generation owner of this 78-year-old store, knows every item in the shop like a close friend. Ask him for a pen, and he’ll tell you which one writes smoothest, lasts longest, or feels best in your hand. Ask him for a notebook, and he’ll gently guide you to the right one, not the most expensive, but the most useful for your needs.

In a town famously known as the “land of letters,” full of schools, colleges, and bookstores, stationery shops are not uncommon. But RS Prabhu Stationery stands out, not for its size, but for the legacy it carries and the trust it has earned.

The story goes back to 1947, when Murali’s grandfather, GR Prabhu, started the business with ₹3,000. The family had migrated from Goa to Kerala, part of the Konkani-speaking community that came seeking business opportunities. What began as a modest supply store soon became the sought after shop in Kottayam.

In 1977, during a family partition, GR’s son RS Prabhu took the store forward under his own name. And today, it’s Murali who carries the torch.
“I’ve been in the shop since I was a schoolboy,” says Murali. "From school days, my brother and I used to help our father in the shop,” Murali says. “After school, I didn’t really continue with college… I just stayed on with the business.

That early start shows. Murali doesn’t just run a business, he curates an experience. And his customers, ranging from schoolkids to office-goers to teachers, keep coming back not just for what they buy, but for the way they’re treated.

“Over the years, we’ve seen many stationery shops come and go,” he says. “But if you work honestly and are willing to change with the times, people will find you.”

Change hasn’t been easy in the digital era. With computers replacing much of what used to be handwritten, stationery sales across the country have declined. But Murali has kept the shelves relevant. “Now we stock printer inks, A4 and A3 paper, office supplies, things needed in today’s world. But we still keep the old items too,” he says.

Even slates and slate pencils, which hardly sell these days, have a spot. “If a parent comes asking for it, we don’t want to say no. Some things may not sell much, but they still matter.”

This attention to detail, this refusal to say “we don’t have it,” has earned the shop an almost legendary status. “Even our competitors sometimes send their customers to us,” Murali says with a quiet smile. “That’s the kind of goodwill my father believed in.”

There’s a kind of gentle time-travel that happens when you step into the store. The smell of paper and ink, the soft hum of customers asking about nib sizes or page thickness, it all brings back something forgotten in today’s instant, online world: that shopping used to be personal.
“My father always said, ‘If a customer asks for something you don’t have today, make sure you have it the next time.’ That’s how trust is built,” says Murali.