The Hindu Business Line : Pages from a bookseller's life

A FEW months ago, an old Parsi couple sold its 50-year collection of National Georgaphic, Time and Life magazines to an old, second-hand bookshop at Flora Fountain, and the volumes were picked up immediately by a few interested buyers, informs young Bharat Amin, whose father started the business some 50 years ago at the foot of the Oriental Building opposite Flora Fountain.

His father, Narayan Amin, died two years ago and now Bharat runs the place. Bharat and others have not yet been served quit notices by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation though they are aware of the move to shift their bookshops to make Flora Fountain a no-hawking zone.

The bookshelves on the walls of the Central Telegraph Office have gone after a portion of the wall fell down and the owners are not sure where to go with their luggage of books. Books are held in place on the walls by ropes for the convenience of the buyers. The sellers do not shout their wares and the books do not hide anything but a few lines of poetry or prose.

Bharat showed Amit and me a writing pad bearing the signed comments of the regulars pleading with the government to leave the shops alone. The writing pad boasts of a stamped letterhead, Fountain Book Association, though Bharat admits the Association has not been formed.

A Spanish buyer has noted the existence of bookshops in the heart of Paris on the River Siene while arguing for the Fountain stalls to remain Fountain stalls. They are thinking of forming an association not to battle any authority but to engage the government in talks. "Abhi tho koi chara nahin hai (There is no alternative for us)," admits Bharat, who is a graduate and lives in Andheri.

"Do you ever read the books you sell," one asked Bharat, who replied, "I do read spiritual books and some of our clients are so decent that we try to be like them."

On a Monday afternoon, Amit and myself walked down to the Fountain to know a bit of a trade threatened by change. Most of the books come from raddi sales while some are unloaded by families quitting Mumbai. Sometimes publishers offer books at a discount and then there is an information network alerting them to distress sales of priced publications.

"Dekhiye saab, hum ye kitaben padthe nahin hai. Par ek bath hai, hum ko iska demand aur bhav maloom hai (Sir, we do not read these books but know their economic value)," informs S.V. Pande, whose shop is at the foot of the Oriental Building housing American Express.

He was having his lunch of dry rotis and aloo bhaji sitting on a pile of old volumes and was gracious enough to break off for a chat. His father, Ram Raj Pande, set up perhaps the first book kiosk some 50 years ago. They rarely close shop; most of the time they are on their legs breathing the smoke left by a long line of cars and BEST buses; they had little to complain till date.

For Bharat, 54-year-old Jamal Ahmed Sheikh is an old friend, having spent some 30 years standing at Flora Fountain vending books. Jamal showed us a letter with a noting by a retired municipal commissioner saying the book business at the Fountain should not be touched, and Jamal adds, "This officer continues to be a regular buyer. The best of them come on Sundays with their families to strike bargains."

Jamal passed school, entered the book trade and lives at Nagpada with his family. His two daughters and one son are married while the second son is at home.

He has a point when he says that moving the trade to any other spot in the city will not yield the same business or clients as book buying is uncommon. A skein of honest friendship binds these gentlemen (there are no women vendors) to their clientele. Sometimes they hold on to rare numbers till the buyer turns up and do not part with the collection even when offered better bids.

At this point of time they do not want to talk of the seamy side of the business, with the various arms of the government demanding haftas. Sometimes a raiding party dumps the books far out of the city and there is no way of getting them back. A shop should be earning around Rs 9,000 per day net of costs going by the estimates provided to us.

Living could be harder for the assistants like Suresh Kundal, earning about Rs 2,000 per month. Kundal comes from Visakhapatnam and Amit quickly became his friend by speaking in Telugu. Walking back to the office, one noted the cars parked on the footpath along the Oval Maidan while at Nariman Point, a multi-layered car park is coming up. But the booksellers of Fountain cannot have standing space.

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