Interestingly, it was a string of SOS posts on social media from several Dilliwallahs, essentially members of the publisher community, that first alerted this columnist about our worst fears. Yes, we had been hearing murmurs that the popular Kemps Corner’s outlet of Crossword in the city was counting down its days, but the bibliophile and optimist in us was hoping for a pandemic miracle to salvage the city’s reading landscape. Alas. It wasn’t to be, and as we scrolled through the posts, it came to light that the bookstore in SoBo was going to shut down on September 30.

Delhi’s publishing community were ruing not just the loss of their preferred bookstore for city launches of their big-ticket authors for nearly two decades but also their favourite meeting ground to hobnob with Bombay’s literati; some even went as far as to reminisce about Moshe Shek’s apple pie and his other delish baked goodies that made it a popular hangout on the mezzanine level.