In his 1951 book, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Nirad C Chaudhuri, a self-professed Anglophile, writes about how he used to bring home books in large bamboo baskets carried by porters on their heads, like menfolk back then used to bring home their daily wet market shopping. But Chaudhuri was an exceptional Indian. I remember Kolkata - Calcutta in my childhood - used to have independent bookshops along many of its major streets. Now, I hardly see them. The streets and sidewalks, especially at crowded crossroads, are now overrun by shops selling gold jewellery, ready-made garments, medicine, sweets, cheap plastic flowers and trinkets. Everything else but books.
I wonder why the beloved city of my youth is still called the cultural capital of India. At least, book buying isn't its culture anymore. (Nor it is as far as going to painting exhibitions is concerned. After the opening day's invited gathering of a hundred or so people, the halls remain virtually empty. And I doubt if people still pay large sums of money to buy tickets for night-long musical soirees).
Though the celebrated 150-year-old bookstore, Dasgupta & Co, has survived increasingly aggressive attacks from online vendors and claims to possess first editions of many rare publications, it looks lost in the surrounding melee. For the Bengali middle class, the culture of giving books as gifts, very much a fashion at one time, has vanished altogether. Now, people would rather buy clothes and toys as presents ordered from online marketers.
There used to be the famous wrought-iron railing at the Presidency College campus where one went to look for, or simply browse through, old and rare books. It was a book lover's paradise. I don't go there anymore because the whole character of the College Square area has changed. Of course, books are still bought and sold, but by and large through online marketers, perhaps to be read on Kindle or other such portable reading gadgets.
The plight of bookshops under stiff competition from online vendors is not a typically Kolkata phenomenon, though. For 57 years, Kepler's Books and Magazines in Menlo Park, California, had been one of the US' premier independent bookstores, famous for its outstanding author events, knowledgeable staff, and eclectic selection of books. Gradually, things began to change. By 2005, it became clearer that the online battle was too tough to win, and the store pulled down its shutters. However, in a remarkable turnaround and following strong community protest, the store reopened within weeks of its closure.
For a long time, a staunch pacifist named Ira Sandperl, who died two years ago at 90, used to be a fixture behind Kepler's cash register. Indeed, he was so popular, knowledgeable and friendly that people thought he owned the shop himself. He was a Gandhian scholar who helped folk singer Joan Baez establish the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence in Carmel Valley, California, and became its first president. I came to know Sandperl in the mid-1980s while visiting my daughter at Stanford. She was an undergraduate student there. We'd spend hours at Stanford's Tressider courtyard, sipping coffee, discussing Gandhi and his ideals, or just matters of common interest. Sometimes he would even accompany us on our occasional drives through the countryside around Stanford. I remember visiting the Carmel Valley institute with him, which was quite an experience.
As a Kolkatan, I can only envy what Kepler's has done for the US, producing a strong community movement to save independent bookstores from the onslaught of giant book chains and online vendors. Can one expect such a movement in Kolkata, too? Can we get back our lost Presidency College (now a university) railing? No way. People here have other things to occupy themselves with, like smartphones and social media. They've little regard for the past, or heritage, and having demolished the beautiful British-era Senate Hall and replaced it with an ugly box-like structure, they feel fulfilled.
rbarun@gmail.com
The author who previously wrote 'Asia File' starts his new column 'Back Lane' from today
The author who previously wrote 'Asia File' starts his new column 'Back Lane' from today
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