In Fine Print

At the counter,50-year-old Ramesh Jadhav is busy making the bill for a new customer. For the book lovers,the fair is rightly called ‘crazy’. A tall line of books cover the entire breadth of the room. In a corner,several cartons full of new titles wait to be displayed. Ask Jadhav about the fair and he promptly hands over a visiting card. The yellow visiting card has the number of Praveen bhai Shah from Mumbai. The address directs one to the wholesale book market in Fort,Mumbai.

This Mumbai-based businessman has been getting books to the city for several years now. “We get various genres,right from History,Geography,Sciences to fiction books. The titles that are sold are affordable,” says Shah. One can see price tags of Rs 25,30,50,99 and 125 hang at different places at the fair. Hardbound encyclopedias that cost between Rs 75 to Rs 250 are stacked in a corner.

Shah’s small initiative is a result of his own wish to learn to read. “I am uneducated,” he says as he explains his entrepreneurial venture. “I started off by selling newspapers and gradually moved to buying and selling books. I couldn’t read them myself,but it helped me provide for my children.”

Today,Shah has a successful business in wholesale books. In Pune however,he is providing books with no profit motive. “This was my uncle’s property,where we now sell books. Sometimes we don’t even cut even,but I can never shut the fair. I have got a very good feedback from people who come and buy books here. Plus,the student community finds it pocket-friendly. As long as I can help someone read,I am happy,” he says.

The books are sent from Mumbai once a week. Majority of the books were initially imported by Shah from USA and UK,seven years ago. “I had got around two lakh books from there. That helped me build the initial stock. From then on,we keep getting newer books from vendors and libraries,” he says.