Rajendra K. Aneja

“Just go to Strand Book Stall. You will be able to buy any book you want to,” advised my Sydenham College English Professor Zebunissa Kazi and classmate Jyotsna Sanzgiri. I had won a Rotary Club Award to buy books worth Rs.100. Today Rs.100 cannot even fetch one book. Most books cost above Rs.500. However Rs.100 in 1969 is probable equal to about Rs.10,000 today. Thus even in 1969, Rs.100 could buy 10 to 15 good quality books, since prices of books have always been lower in India than most countries.

So I scampered off as a 20-year-old student to Strand Book Stall in Fort area in downtown Bombay (now Mumbai). Wow! The small store of about 750 square feet was air-conditioned and stacked with about 25,000 to 30,000 books. I was in a fairyland. The smell of new books was intoxicating.

The owner of the shop, T. S. Shanbhag found me scanning the shelves and asked me if I was looking for any specific title. When I told him I needed to spend Rs.100 on some good books, he said, “I will help you”. First on my list were “Zorba the Greek,” written by Nikos Kazantzakis and the “The story of Philosophy” by Will Durant, both of which I yet have after 50 years. Shanbhag personally helped me select good books by John Keynes, Erich Fromm, Bertrand Russell, etc., which opened windows to new world for me. Then he offered me a 20 percent discount! My joy knew no bounds.

Throughout my career I visited the store at least monthly to buy the latest books on politics, economics and management. The staff, like Praveen and Jagat, were always attentive and helped customers locate books of interest. If they store did not have the title, they would ask for two or three days to source it from the publishers. They were always on schedule. Then, Strand started delivering books to my office also. Finally the staff, since they knew my reading habits would periodically send a collection of new books to my office for me to choose from. This was the ultimate in customer service. Strand Book Stall loved books, writers and readers of books.

Celebrities, writers, politicians visited the stall. I met Arun Shourie, a former federal minister and editor of the Indian Express, at the stall. Former President of India Abdul Kalam and filmstars like Amitabh Bachchan ordered their books from the store. Movie stars like Shashi Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor visited the store to buy books, as did industrialists like J.R.D. Tata and Keshub Mahindra. The store also serviced the needs of ordinary customers and students like me.

Everyone was allured by the magnificent assortment of books, Shanbhag’s personal care and attention, helpfulness of the staff like Jagat Tekkatte and the 20 percent discount, which was unheard of those days.

Shanbhag brought astonishing passion and zeal to the task of reaching good books to the readers. He was a one-man institution of customer service.

So I was shocked to learn that the iconic Strand Book Stall will down its shutters for the last time on Feb. 27, the day Shanbhag passed away in 2009. Strand has been a landmark store in Mumbai for almost seven decades. It is the end of an era.

With the advent of online e-commerce options like Amazon, the sales of brick and mortar shops were bound to suffer. Now, online sites send books to our homes within a day, at 10 to 20 per cent discounts. So single- store formats like Strand Book Stall may make losses.

In the last few years, Mumbai has seen other landmarks disappear, like the “Samovar” restaurant in Jehangir Art Gallery which was a favourite of the students and executives, devouring “aloo” (potato) and “mulli” (radish) “parathas”. Another landmark to evaporate was “Rhythm House”, where we flocked to buy records, music CDs’, etc.

The closure of Strand Book Stall also signifies a decline in the reading habit. Online reading sites are convenient, but really no substitute for carrying a paperback or hardbound book on a train or flight journey, with a pencil or highlighter in hand, underlining new words or attention-grabbing phrases to enrich your vocabulary.

With the closure of Strand Book Stall, a part of my youth vanishes. I had not imagined that I would be upset with the closure of a bookstall. My heart is sad.