What
if I tell you that today I am taking you to a shop which is full of non-fiction
books and you can get most of the world bestsellers, rare books and even first
edition books in this shop? Yes, there is a shop with such a vast range of
books in Delhi’s very own Khan Market.
I
am talking about a 1951 established bookstore, Faqir Chand and Sons. Faqir
Chand started as the Oriental Book Shop in Peshawar Cantonment in present-day
Pakistan in 1931. The owner moved to Delhi following Partition and set up the
same kind of bookshop in Khan Market—but named it after himself.
I
met the fourth generation bookseller Abhinav Bamhi, who has already decided to
take the responsibility of the store. He is in his early 20’s, her mother Mrs. Mamta
is also a very sweet lady who has given her son the liberty to decide his own
future and he decided to be a bookseller and has promised to carry forward the
legacy of the past three generations. Abhinav is studying Literature from
School of Open Learning (SOL), University of Delhi and is currently in his
final year.
While
talking to Abhinav, I discovered his passion for reading and selling. While
asking about his hobbies, “to sell the book you need to know about the book.
So, I read books and get to know about them” said Abhinav.
Today
most of the youth are more towards reading e-books for better comfort and
mobility factor of digital books. During our conversation, I asked Abhinav
about the impact of ebooks on the sales of print books. According to him, the
print books are back after a phase of ebooks, because whenever something new is
introduced automatically the older things go out of fashion for a while but
again the print book market is back to business or it never went out of
business. The introduction of ebooks affected the sales for initial six months but
after that everything was back to place. 
The
sales of books related to history and politics have a larger market in an area
like Khan Market. It’s one of the most liked places by the bureaucrats,
politicians, intellectuals and news personalities. It’s like a home for a very
few delhiites and for a very few young friends. According to Mamta ji
(Abhinav’s mum), “this store is basically visited by foreigners, politicians
and famous intellectuals on daily basis and so we have books related to real
lives, not fiction. We try to cater everyone’s demand and so we have a ratio of
70 nonfiction and 30 fiction books in our store.”
I
hope Abhinav will continue to manage the shop as a legacy of his great
grandfather Shri. Faqir Chand. I hope, this shop will continue to rise and
shine.
If
you want to visit Faqir Chand and Sons, here’s the address:
Faqir
Chand and Sons
Shop
no 15/A, Khan Market,
Rabindra
Nagar, New Delhi,
Delhi
110003
Thanks
for reading.
E.S.
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