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As I pondered over what I prefer – online or real books – yesterday, I happened to read this article on Rediff few days back about the banning pavement booksellers in Mumbai, especially near Flora Fountain and Regal Cinema areas. I was genuinely saddened by this callous move on part of the government. As you read the article, you will find yourself nodding in agreement if you ever bought books off those pavements. Book sellers like Mahesh who haven’t read a single book amongst hundreds they sell every day are smart enough to study consumer behavior and recommend additional selections. They have honed their innate ability to look past superficial intentions of teenagers looking for Windows for Dummies and offer Playboy instead. Most of the times, they were right.
He managed solely by paying a great deal of attention to his customers. With one eye firmly on the crowd passing by (he insisted on calling out to regular or potential buyers every five minutes), he told me about his "system" — Paperback thrillers in the top and lowest rows. Penguin paperbacks in the second row, current pirated bestsellers in the third, everything else spread across the fourth.
The pavement booksellers are a human story by themselves. They offer you a cheaper alternative to materials that otherwise you would shell out lot more in stores like Crosswords or Danai. They are the ‘long tail’ vendors of book selling industry in India, stocking editions that have been out of print for ages. Although online bookstores may have rendered them redundant, they still provided that much-needed human touch in still-niche field of books. They shouldn’t be protected for sentimental reasons, instead should be kept around purely because they fulfilled a market need for book lovers. I bet, the wide pavements opposite Prince of Wales are lonely and lifeless now except for the scurrying souls at rush hour.
by Patrix | on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 at 3:00 pm | 
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June 9th, 2005 at 4:15 am reply
Its indeed a sad story. The pavements were a great place for buying used books, which you wouldn’t have even got at Crossword