Bookshops keep shutting but this one was special. It was the oldest bookshop in Bhopal.
Passing by the area in the Walled City, I had seen the shop closed twice in the last month, and felt that something was wrong.
But then I thought that maybe the shop owner was ill. However, another bookshop owner who is a friend waved at me the other day when I was riding my bike, and gave me the news about the closure of the shop.
"Why", I asked. "It was on rent, the owner wanted to give it to someone else who was willing to pay a huge amount", he replied.
"It was the oldest shop, wasn't it?", I said. "Must be 100 or 90 years old...inke Abba hi pachaas saal baithe hain us dukaan par", said my friend.
Sadly, no one seemed to notice. In fact, most people are not even aware that such a shop existed. 'Achcha, kahaan thi?". When you tell them about the lane, the reply comes, 'Oh...there...'.
Not a posh locality, not a swanky shop, yet it was part of Bhopal's history. I can remember, for ages, going to this shop. The place didn't have a large number of books now but they still got some unique books, papers, weeklies, magazines from all over the country.
