NEW AND SECOND HAND BOOKSHOP - SINCE 1905

This article appeared originally in Mumbai Mirror, of the Times Of India group.

LIVE LIFE, SECOND HAND…

… at the New And Second Hand Book Store of yore, finds Rishi Majumder

No glass walls, no grand signboard and no guard at the doorstep. The
New And Second Hand Book Store (Since 1905) lets out its stifled
scream for attention in faded but bold red lettering from a
weather-beaten sign attached to the ground floor of a ramshackle
building, in a row of many ramshackle buildings, at Kalbadevi. Drowning that voice
even further, is the fact that the shutters one both sides of the shop
are perpetually down. So the lone lodestones to literature are a small
window showcase of books – flaunting subjects from the Mohini Attam
dance form and Eastern philosophy to Parenting and the formative years
of the UAE, and an ajar door, ensuring that peep which makes Alice
want to dive in.
Inside the rabbit hole (and not one remotely as deep as Caroll's…) are
rows of old iron and wooden bookshelves leaving between them just
enough passage for one body to squeeze through. "Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a
regular visitor to the store, never came in, always ordered his books
from his car," informs current proprietor Sultan Vishram. Good
thinking maybe. His stout frame might never have fitted in! In these
bookshelves, are crammed to the overflowing books on every subject
under the sky. Politics – from Plato to Woodrow Wilson, literature –
from Homer to Rushdie, gardening, psychology, art, religion, music,
cinema, theatre… the bookstore is the older Mumbaikar's rejoinder to
Google. "Yet today, sales are dwindling because youngsters don't want
to read anymore. They have the TV and internet to give them
information they require," Vishram, himself in his 60s, sighs jadedly.
But does that substitute depth? "Explain that to today's
in-a-hurry-generation," he smiles. He remembers yesteryears star
Bharat Bhushan who bought innumerable books on theatre, acting and
film, from the store, to build his collection. He also remembers
Bushan's engineer son, who after his death sold the collection back to
him. "He said he had no use for books from that profession. But the
collection was priceless!" Vishram cries.
More than the content, many of the books are priceless for the
atmosphere that's settled around them. College notes, half a century
old. A bookmark from the 40s with the English royal coat of arms. One
literature student has exulted to find, in the middle of his book of
American poets from the store, an invitation to a reading by Robert
Frost at the Asiatic library many many years go. "Often, books which
are out of print, are taken from this store for re-printing purposes,"
gloats Vishram. But those rare books coming in aren't as frequent as
before: "People have become more illuminated now. They know an antique
book when they see one, and don't part with it as easily."
Which brings us to how the store built and sustained this coveted
collection. "It started off in 1905 as a Raddi Paper shop (a paper
recyling outlet)," Vishram delves back. His grandfather Jamalbhai
Ratansey then started buying and selling school text books before
spotting opportunity in general reading material during the Second
World War. The shop grew along this format in amoebic fashion. "We get
our supplies from what people sell us at the counter. Some people of
course buy books in bulk from Chor Bazaar, and we pick and choose from
them," Vishram elucidates. Often books are bought back from the same
customers who they were sold to. "Infact, if a customer comes back
within 15 days, we guarantee a buy back at half the price." And the
pricing? "On an average it's half the label price, but it varies with
10 % of that depending on the condition of the book," he justifies.
Even with it's selling new books now, the partly regurgitated second
hand stream is still the business mainstay.
On the attic like second floor are more book closets. Here you have to
walk sideways in between the shelves to fit. But books on journalism,
international history, military science and war, Indology and Sanskrit
and French literature and grammar would convince many a couch potato
to delve through the dusty corridors of knowledge. Or maybe not,
considering what Vishram said about sales to youngsters. In Vishram's
over-cluttered cubicle of an office are the store's truest treasures.
The complete works of Shakespeare published in 1900, The Life Of
Napoleon Bonaparte by Joseph S C Abbot, a 1911 publication of
Moliere's plays, reprinted from stereotyped plates, a John Milton
omnibus published in 1885, Burke's Speeches published in 1897 are only
some of the available antiques, though Vishram warns, "It's not just
the age of a book that determines it's value, but the edition it is".
Funnily, more foreigners buy these books than Indians: "They spend
hours in this cubicle, buy whole sets together, then inform their
friends abroad who call and ask me to keep certain pieces aside."
Earlier many of these pieces were collected by Indians, including in
the list of buyers ex- defense minister V K Krishnamenon, Rajneesh
Osho, Sadhu Vasvani, Ali Yavar Jang and Jennifer Kapoor. And it's not
just the buyers that are diminishing. "Two other bookshops like this
closed down some years ago. And my children aren't interested in this
business at all," smiles Vishram acceptingly, signing the death
warrant on a legacy. Well, at least we know it'll be one hell of an
auction…