Street Walking

And yet, last weekend, when I attended the Crossword Book Awards in the spanking, ultra-modern bookstore, I was struck by a near blasphemous thought: Perhaps all change is not such a bad thing. I know this is a politically-incorrect train of thought given that everyone is bemoaning the death of the Irani restaurant by the evil golden arches. The city8217;s old hands are wringing in despair 8212; and it isn8217;t easy for me to make this admission either.

I was sentimental about Strand. Seven years ago, every Saturday, I had a sacrosanct schedule: Eat lunch at Samovar, flit in to Bombay Swadeshi and spend hours browsing in Mr Shanbag8217;s book store. Where else could you get a Tom Sharpeomnibus for Rs 350 or Shashi Tharoor8217;s Great Indian Novel for Rs 150 8212; hardbound, of course. One time, I was desperately hunting for John Kennedy Toole8217;s A Confederacy of Dunces and Strand not only ordered it for me, they also gave me a 20 per cent discount. A discount that seemed like a prize for discerning taste in literature.

I returned to Strand, again and again. Where I found Lawrence Durrell8217;s The Alexandria Quartet and I Allan Sealy8217;s The Trotter-Nama: A Chronicle 8212; books I searched for high and low, both in Bombay and Delhi.

I Allan Sealy. The winner of the Rs 2-lakh cheque that came with the first Crossword Award. I am willing to bet that the swanky store doesn8217;t have copies of Trotter-Nama. But the shelves will be flooded with copies of The Everest Hotel. And that brings me to the point 8212; the difference between the two stores. Around the time I was a Strand groupie, a bookstore called Crossword opened. While it was bad enough that it was located atBreach Candy 8212; How can that nouveau-trash area compare with the charming streets of old Fort? 8212; inside, books were flanked by soft toys and quot;cho chweetquot; greeting cards. Uggh! The books were also cutely-labelled under fiction8217;, non-fiction8217;, humour8217;, architecture8217; etc. I wandered through the bookstore wondering where Jean Paul Sartre would fit 8212; fiction or philosophy? Or was that an existentialist question that even he could not answer?

My opinion of the store went from bad to worse when I went looking for Tom Robbins 8212; nothing high brow 8212; when some badge-wearing person, in Crossword, pointed me in the direction of Harold Robbins. I walked out in despair.

But after a while I got sick of going to Strand and finding the same old titles gathering dust. Yes, they ordered whatever you wanted 8212; even at the risk of snatching the publisher8217;s personal copy 8212; but when you go out book shopping, you want to return with your quota of weekend reading. By then I had also gifted everyone a copy of GreatIndian Novel.

So, I tentatively wandered back to Crossword, lured by a Vikram Chandra reading of Red Earth and Pouring Rain. The first thing I saw was the entire William series by Richmal Crompton. Next to it was a huge selection of Roald Dahl8217;s children8217;s writing. The fiction section looked a little better too and I found Minerva editions of Amy Tan8217;s Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God8217;s Wife. Over the last few year8217;s I have also seen Crossword single-handedly usher in the phenomenon of the Celebrity Writer.

Events around a book, a hullabaloo surrounding a release, meet-the-author series and roping-in celebrities to quot;enactquot; readings may be the norm today. But five years ago, an Indian writer was synonymous with cheap paper, loose packaging and tacky style. Today, Crossword has to down its shutters to keep the crowds at bay when Shobha De or Kiran Bedi are signing copies of their books. And suddenly, it8217;s become convenient to buy a book, pick up a card, refill your Parker pen andget attachments for your filofax 8212; under one roof.

And let8217;s not forget the most important part 8212; Crossword now has an enviable stock of new fiction. Okay, Bridget Jones8217;s Diary is out of stock it is every where but Arabella Weir8217;s Does My Bum Look Big In This is available. As is Brett Easton Ellis8217;s The Informers. Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard share shelf space with Manju Kapur, Kiran Desai and Sohaila Abdulali.

And joy! On the other end of the spectrum, you can get Attia Hosain8217;s Sunlight On A Broken Column and Saadat Hasan Manto8217;s Mottled Dawn. And Ed McBain8217;s entire 59th precinct series. Which can be pondered over excellent capuccino, espresso or ristretto. Now Crossword has the city8217;s first bookside cafe.

Nonita Kalra is features editor, The Indian Express.