Lindsay Pereira: The loneliness of the bookseller

The death of a bookstore is also death of a host of possibilities because of the role they once played in our communities File picI first ran into TN Shanbhag while studying towards a Bachelors degree in literature a quarter of a century ago I had no idea who he was except that he slashed the price of a book of poems by Arun Kolatkar when I expressed some interest in purchasing it I wouldnt have been able to afford it without that discount and thanked him for it The Strand Book Stall was at the time the only place that stocked Kolatkars Jejuri and I still dont know of other stores selling copies for anyone interested in the late poets powerful voice of reasonIf you dont know Shanbhags story I have no intention of repeating it here because those who ought to know it do so already If you dont know that the store he founded over seven decades ago will have closed forever by the time this column goes to print the loss is yours alone Im told six Strand stores shut down over the past five years in Pune Hyderabad Bangalore and Pune making the demise of the original store inevitable in the aftermath of our collective ecommerce revolution It isnt just the shutting down of an iconic store and an integral part of our citys history that affects me though it is our failure to be more concerned when bookstores are no longer as important as they once used to beKolatkars poems helped me make sense of a number of things in my youth because that is part of what all good literature must do The Strand also introduced me to a host of other voices imported wholesale by Shanbhag and sold at ridiculously low prices that made it possible for thousands of people like me to walk the streets with copies of Baudelaire Joyce and Roth in our bags Unlike visitors to ecommerce sites we didnt walk into bookstores with specific titles in mind We browsed because that was part of what made those visits so exciting I would step out at Churchgate station walk leisurely across DN Road stop at every 50 metres and stare at what the many booksellers in those bylanes had to offer Some of those young men recommended writers I had never heard of before and books I continue to think of fondly long after the sellers have disappearedThe booksellers that lined both sides of the street from Churchgate to Flora Fountain are no longer around presumably because the BMC that doesnt evict illegal hawkers of counterfeit goods and unhealthy food outside railway stations is worried about unlicensed booksellers influencing vulnerable minds with works of fiction No one at the BMC reads obviously What I remember most of the weeks after those evictions is a forlorn piece of cardboard tacked onto a railing posing the question What did the books do to youChange is important and inevitable of course because cities like civilisations must die and be replaced The death of a bookstore unfortunately is also the death of a host of possibilities because of the role they once played in our communities Bookstores are what gave us access to the world outside our bubbles and introduced us to voices of protest joy and anger that were different from our own while helping us understand that we shared a common humanity Over the years spaces reserved for the selling of books have only given way to the kind of commodities that make one store indistinguishable from the nextA part of me dismisses my own sense of nostalgia as cheap sentimentality demanding why I didnt visit these stores more often and why I shopped online when I could have chosen to support local sellers offline instead The answer I give myself to help me sleep at night is that I continue to do both shop online for titles that arent stocked offline and visit stores for the sheer pleasure of stumbling upon an unexpected treat for myselfWe say nothing when our heritage is torn down to make way for a mall We really should say something when the bookstores go though because their departure is a tragedy for those who must come after us If our children are denied a place to look for books that seem interesting how will they discover voices like that of Arun Kolatkar on their ownWhen he isnt ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates