A Bibliophile and bookshops

Harmony Bookshop in Varanasi

The digital bookshops are not only giving us discounts and enormous amount convenience but also robbing us from the pleasure of being in a physical bookshop. For last 4 years, since I started using Kindle I made a decent balance between buying physical books and digital books. But, I did not change my habit of visiting bookshops.

Every time I see a bookshop I want to walk in and spend some time exploring books, being surrounded by the racks full of immortal words.The bookshops have been described using many superlative analogies but for me the bookshops are an emotional thing. Books transformed me and the bookshops/library provided me the perfect place to gift some quality time to myself.

The charm of bookshops is beyond the setup,interiors and the number of books that it contained, yet old bookshops in a small cities are special. Places like Varanasi, Rishikesh, Jaipur, Bhopal, Pune all have a one or two bookshops that every bibliophile is nostalgic about. Recently, I was in Varanasi and got a chance to know about the bookshops in Varanasi. Varanasi, the most ancient living city on the planet and the must visit city for any tourist with interest in spirituality, Indian culture or religion, has a number of bookshops that are special.

I found a number of bookshops that are an attraction to bibliophile and tourists here. Each of these bookshops have a rich collection of titles on one or other topic. But, for anyone interested in Hindu religion, Indology, Buddhism, Samskrit, Hindi Sahyitya these bookshops may have the best collection in India. Most of the bookshops are now also have a publication unit and publish books on niche topics. The shopkeepers are knowledgeable and have good understanding of the topics they specialize in.

I stumbled upon some of the rare books on Varanasi, Samskrit and folk-tales. And, several books in vernacular that I never saw anywhere else. The big bookshops based in the malls usually ignore the vernacular books. Good vernacular books are now being confined to book fares and libraries. This has posed a serious threat to our vernacular classic. I found a book on Varanasi in English which is a translation of a Hindi book. I immediately asked for the original Hindi book. The shopkeeper informed that there are no copies of that book available now. The shopkeeper was himself looking for the original copy so that they can run a reprint. He informed me that there are several such books whose original copies in vernacular are lost and we are selling the translated version.

I bought quite a number of them. I love my books and I love even more when I get a book in my mother tongue: Hindi. The bookshops in Varanasi have a good collection of Hindi books. I wish bookshops in metros should give more space to vernacular literature.