A Strand of the Past, Almost

I don't think I was at Strand Book Stall on more than a handful of occasions, but it was a unique book shop. And Mr T N Shanbagh was a unique bookseller.

I remember once looking for Vikram Seth's An Equal Music when Mr Shanbagh came over and said, "Ah, you are interested in his books." I said yes, he was one of my favorite authors.

I had the Indian edition in my hand, when he said, "We also have a foreign edition," and called one of the assistants to get a copy. Then he told me, "You know, this is a better edition and is also cheaper! The paper is thicker and the print on the other side doesn't show through. I get better deals on foreign editions and I pass it on."

Then he pointed to the rough edges of the paper, saying, "Many people think this is a defect. Actually, these are special copies and are more expensive." I found out more later about deckling and its presence in an era of automated mass production.

On another occasion, I was browsing at Strand when I noticed a couple of shelves and a swivel rack of Western classical music CDs. My heart leaped, especially when I saw the ridiculously low prices. I turned, sensing someone behind me, and there was Mr Shanbagh again! He was curious about my interest. I told him I had been listening to Western classical for a few years but did not know much about it. He said he had a few friends, mostly elderly Parsis, who listened primarily to the genre.

I asked him how he could sell the CDs so cheap. "I visited a publisher friend when I had gone to the Hamburg book fair," he said. "I saw piles of CDs, and he told me he didn't know what to do with them and he would probably sell them as junk. I thought my friends would be interested, and told him I could buy the CDs if they weren't too expensive. He said I didn't have to pay him anything except all the transport costs. That's why they are so cheap." A CD was priced at ₹55 and a double CD pack at ₹85. I picked up all the CDs I could for the money I had on me.

I visited again a few weeks later and a lot of the CDs were still there. After I moved to Bangalore, I visited Strand at Manipal Centre and a found a stack of CDs from the same set, and ended up buying quite a few more.

At Strand Bangalore, I once got talking to Vidya Virkar, mentioning my literature background and being a journalist, and she gave me an additional 10% discount! If all this was silly, it was the best kind of silliness I've ever encountered. In Bangalore, I bought virtually all my books at Strand.

The closure of Strand Bangalore was sad. The impending closure of THE Strand is disturbing.