Journalism of Courage
At a raddiwala’s in Shivaji Nagar,24-year-old electrical engineer Gaurav Gupta uncovered a beloved relic. I found the first classic edition of Pickwick Papers there, he exclaims. I am a big fan of Dickens and though I have a copy of the book,I picked up this one because it was such an old edition. I like the small notes inside such books,they remind me of their previous ownership. A stamp on Gupta’s book declared its place of origin to be Madhu Book Depot in Matunga,Mumbai. Book-lovers like Gupta can often discover some prized old gems among the frayed books at stalls that sell secondhand ware. In the teeming godowns behind Appa Balwant Chowk,the second-hand book mecca of the city,thousands of books are stored,and amongst them are some rare editions of best sellers and out-of-print classics.
Around Lakdi Pull in Deccan,several raddiwalas stock a steady supply of old novels. Writer Suraj Kulkarni is a frequent visitor to this place. “I picked up a 1950s edition copy of Das Kapital for Rs 100 from here. The market price for it today is Rs 7,000! But it’s not the huge price difference that motivates him to buy from here. I like picking up books that are rare. Where will I find a 1950 edition? Kulkarni also found a book which was long out of print. It is a collection of stories that was written in 1886 and reprinted in early 1940s. “It is not available anywhere else,” he says.
But at Appa Balwant Chowk (ABC),the biggest second-hand market for books,many such books often die an unceremonious death . We are not known for stocking novels, says Hemant Shevate,a member of the book sellers association at ABC. We manage to get a lot of old novels,but they hardly have any resale value attached to them. Academic books have an immediate market,but not these. We often give them away to scrap dealers where I am sure they are lost. Shevate had received a lot of novels in last year’s annual book lot. I had kept them at a friend’s shop,which later came into a legal dispute. The court sealed his book store. I remember having seen several old novels in that lot.”
The book-sellers too identify and understand the importance of such old books. The older the book,the higher the price, says Santosh Darekar,who owns the Santosh Raddi Shop in Model Colony. Darekar has been running the shop for 12 years now and can recognise a treasure when he sees one. I have books that mention Rs 5 as their printed cost. Imagine,that old! Capitalising on the demand that comes from book-lovers for these old prints,Darekare often resells them at Rs 200 or more.
