[Urbanstudy] [Fwd: Post 1/ The Second-hand book Shops of Hyderabad.]
Prashant Iyengar
prashantiyengar at gmail.com
Sun Jul 15 15:37:23 IST 2007
Hi,
As a resident of Secunderabad for the past 25 years, and as one who owes his
reading habits entirely to pavement book shops (pirated or seconds) in the
twin-cities I'm very very interested in this research. I've witnessed
first-hand the "dismantling" of the second hand book shop tradition in
hyderabad - acutely visible in the gradual shrinkage of the Abids Sunday
book market, both in terms of territory and variety. While traffic and town
planning may have played a pivotal role in this shrinkage, I suspect also
the weakening of the
"book-reading culture" in the city to be implicated. (About 5 years ago
Gangarams - arguably the best stocked bookstore at the time - shut their
enormous shop in Secunderabad because they weren't selling enough. I
remember their wonderfully knowledgeable manager telling me that there
wasn't enough interest in books in the city to sustain the shop. So even
without town planning, the options of the book-consuming public have been
declining.)
Best Books continues to provide solace to low-budget book-readers and in the
past few years has begun to organise periodic mega sales at YMCA
Secunderabad which throw up some unexpected gems sometimes - other times
you're content with getting cheap copies of books you want for your
collection.
Lately, I've been getting a lot of good books online (from "pirate"
websites). It doesn't rival the feeling of being able to thumb through a
physical copy, but at this stage I'm grateful just to have access.
Look forward to reading more posts in this series.
Prashant
Ps. Even though this is out of the scope of this research, I will assert
that I experience a similar romance with pirated books, even sans the
inscriptions and the yellowing pages, it is a special feeling, having just
put down a wonderful book, to reflect on the fact that you paid just Rs. 60
for it. Inexplicably for me it tends to increase the value of what I have
just "consumed". I have also evolved to a point where I am no longer irked
by the poor quality of the pages or misprints - instead these become sources
of enchantment to be savoured for themselves.
On 7/11/07, Lawrence Liang <lawrence at altlawforum.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "alice samson" <alicesamson at gmail.com>
> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:38:21 +0530
> Subject: [Urbanstudy] Post 1/ The Second-hand book Shops of Hyderabad.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Post 1/ The Inspirations behind this project and the Objects of
> study.
>
>
> A Second-hand Bookshop
>
>
> The sunlight filters through the panes
> Of book-shop windows, pockmarked grey
> By years of grimy city rains,
> And falls in mild, dust-laden ray
> Across the stock, in shelf and stack,
> Of this old bookshop-man who brought,
> To a shabby shop in a cul-de-sac.
> Three hundred years of print and thought.
>
>
> Like a cloak hangs the bookshop smell,
> Soothing, unique and reminding:
> The book-collector knows its spell,
> Subtle hints of books and binding-
> In the fine, black bookshop dust
> Paper, printer's ink and leather,
> Binder's glue and paper-rust
> And time, all mixed together.
>
>
> Blake's Poems, Sir-ah, yes, I know,
> Bohn did it in the old black binding,
> In '83.' Then shuffles slow
> To scan his shelves, intent on finding
> This book of songs he has not heard,
> With that deaf searcher's hopeful frown
> Who knows the nightingale, a bird
> With feathers grey and reddish brown.
>
>
> John Arlott
>
>
> This poem captures quite beautifully the experience many booklovers have
>
> while at that delightful place that is the second hand bookshop. For some
>
> like me it is an experience so innocent, so joyful that I cannot express
> it in
>
> its entirety.
>
>
> I have lived and travelled through many cities of this huge country that
> is
>
> India and found that most cities in India, and I understand the world over
>
>
> have, if not a full fledged seconds market in books, at least some variant
> of
>
> it. However for us the second hand book markets of Delhi, Hyderabad,
>
> Bombay, Calcutta etc are legendary and most booklovers take time to visit
>
> these enroute to other places.
> I came to Hyderabad in August 2005 for a Masters in English and after I
>
> settled into the place I started my search for good book markets to
>
> service my personal reading habit and for my master's requirement. I soon
>
> learnt that Hyderabad had a wonderful tradition of used book markets all
>
> over the city and these cut across budgets, tastes and locations in the
> city.
>
> There was the Sunday book market at Abids, the rare and antique book
>
> stores near Charminar, the decades old bookshops of Koti and quite a
>
> different world altogether was the Second-hand bookshops like M.R Book
>
> centre and Best Book store; these I suspect might come close to Arlott's
>
> bookstore, but our experience at these shops definitely has a uniqueness
> and is different in many ways from Arlott's description of the bookshop in
> Britain.
>
> I also learnt that soon after I had come to Hyderabad a significant part
> of
>
> this tradition of used-book shops had been dismantled, leaving many book
>
> lovers disappointed and booksellers miserable. The city municipal and
> police
>
> departments had forcibly dismantled some hundred odd bookshops outside
>
> Koti Women's college. These shops, which specialised in school and college
>
>
> textbooks, had for decades serviced the countless students, teachers and
>
> learners of all types in the city.
> I felt the deep sense of injustice that my friends felt, that the sellers
> and
>
> buyers of these used-books felt. I felt the rage that old booklovers felt,
> at
>
> the insensitivity of the planning departments who seemed to plan only for
>
> World games, IT conferences, visits by foreign prime ministers and more
>
> importantly planned for an unattainable dream city that looked like
>
> Shanghai or Tokyo or London. I felt the yearning for a space for reading
> in
>
> the city, and I felt the sense of injustice that this sort of antiseptic
> planning
>
> evoked in all people removed from it.
>
> There is something in a second-hand book that never fails to fascinate. I
>
> like the idea that a book I'm holding has been read, loved or hated by
>
> someone before me. I like to think that fingers over the grainy pages and
>
> tucked old bills or pressed flowers as bookmarks. I like to think that
>
> someone else was amazed by the writer's lyrical prose, incensed by a
>
> character's actions or horrified at the sudden turn of events on page 234.
>
> There is some joy in opening a copy of Doctor Zhivago and finding these
>
> scribbled under the title.
>
> To Mummy,
>
> Hope you enjoy it!
>
> Love Andrew, Anne, Olivier
>
> And wandering away wondering if Mummny enjoyed it. It connects us
>
> irrevocably to the rest of humanity and we read to discover that we are
>
> not alone.
>
> My fascination for these book and bookshops drove me to undertake this
>
> research project on the 'Second Hand Bookstalls of Hyderabad'. My aim
>
> during this study is to, the extent feasible, research and document all
> that
>
> goes into this experience of the Second-Hand Book Shops of Hyderabad. I
>
> will also attempt to trace the relationship of these books, shops and
>
> owners with the history of Hyderabad. Over the next few weeks I will post
>
> here my experiences, findings etc while on this project. Since I do not
> have
>
> a predetermined structure to my exploration I will not be able to post my
>
> research in an organised manner and will most often than not post these in
>
>
> the form of notes, scattered writings etc.
>
>
> ps. Please write to me about your experiences with Second hand books in
> your own cities and in Hyderbad if you have been here. If you have worked on
> a similar project before I would love to learn from your experience with
> customers, bussinessmen, with people in authority etc.
>
> Alice Samson
>
> Ciefl, Hyderabad
>
> alicesamson at gmail,com
>
>
>
>
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