Bookshop on the Footpath

For several decades Alwar Book Shop located on the pavement next to Mylapre Club on Luz Church road has been synonymous with old and rare books, including school and college text books. Readers from not only across Chennai but also from other parts of the country came visiting the shop looking for books. One of them was M.S.Gill, the former CEC who had purchased books worth over Rs 1000 during one of his official visits to Chennai. Avid readers, well known writers, popular stars of the tinsel world, politicians , professionals  were regular customers of Alwar Book shop. The famous names who were patrons of the shop were Arignar Anna, Alladi  krishnaswamy,  C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer and Ramnath Goenka among others. Thousands of students who could not afford to buy new text books made a beeline to Alwar`s book shop to buy the text books they needed for their studies, which are sold for half or less than half of the cover price of the books, depending on  their condition. I think, there would not be any serious reader  in Chennai,  who has not visited Alwar Book  shop some time or the other in his/her life time.

Who is this Alwar? Is He still alive?  Is the shop still functioning? My search for the answers led me to Alwar`s  second daughter Ammu`s  home in  Nacchhiyappa street in Mylapore where I found  that 94 years old Alwar is still alive but not kicking. Both his vision and hearing are impaired. I could only communicate with him through Ammu. The shop still exists in the same location where it has been for the last 60 years,  albeit smaller in size and better organised with books arranged on shelfs donated by a well wisher, compared to the haphazard heaps of books found earlier.  While at the peak of its popularity, the shop had nearly a lakh of books, today it has only about 20,000 books.

In the last six decades the shop has suffered closure many times because of its encounter with the law enforcing agencies or nature in the form of rains & storms. Every time, Alwar would be devastated but would bounce back with steely resolve to serve his loyal customers. Often with the help of sympathetic Mylaporeans and other well wishers.

Alwar`s story is one of passion, perseverance and sheer grit. Hailing from Vilupuram, he came to Madras in late forties as a teenager with dreams of making it big in the film world. Unfortunately he only got  to perform as one of the `extras` in many films  with meager income He had to do odd jobs  to earn a living.  Fate had its own plans for his future. When his uncle with whom he was staying passed away, the responsibility of running the small bookshop that the uncle was running fell on young Alwar`s shoulders. He took to the business like the proverbial duck to the water. He was educated enough to read the titles of the books to help him group them subject wise, The first shop which he started in 1952 was located outside the Suguna Vilas Sabha which was later shifted to the location opposite  the old Kamadhenu theatre where it continues to exist even today.

Alwar remembers that the first set of books he received was from the owner of Amrutanjan Pain Balm factory, located close to his shop. This was followed by donations from other well wishers. He also went around door to door to  collect discarded  text and other  books from homes across the city and  from waste paper merchants for a price.  He ran the shop single handedly for the first few years until a friend Ramanan joined him. Ramanan, a Tam-brahm used to run an old books shop in Moore Market which he lost when a fire destroyed the whole market. Ramanan, who was paid a regular salary by Alwar assisted Alwar in his business for over 30 years until he passed away in 2013 due to  cancer.

Alwar  lived on the pavement adjacent to the shop  and would not sleep the whole night guarding  his shop from petty thieves. Looking at his plight, Sadagopan,  a local Corporator &  a well wisher arranged for the marriage of Alwar, a Hindu  with Mary, a Christian. Thanks to her association with an NGO connected with the local Church, Mary  had a working knowledge of both reading and speaking English. This helped in his business. Alwar was in his mid forties and  Mary was nearly 30 years younger than him when they got married.

Inspite of the age difference Mary proved to be devout wife not only  actively helping her husband  in his business but also blessing him  with four daughters, all born in the makeshift living accommodation on the pavement. His daughter recalls,` All four sisters were brought up on the pavement. My father was so involved with running the shop , that  he never thought of having a proper home for the family. It was only in 1999 when we  daughters had reached marriageable ages  that  due to my mother`s initiative we  moved to  a modest rental accommodation in Mylapore. My father, however, continued to live in the shop at nights.  We owe a lot to our mother that all of us got  basic education and married off in due course to respectable grooms. After my father seriously fell ill due to an accident at home in 2012 and after uncle Ramanan`s passing away, my mother ran the shop with help from me and my elder sister Julie. Unfortunately my mother also  passed away in January this year (2018) suddenly  leaving the responsibility of running the shop to my sister and I which we have to do in addition to the responsibility of looking after our own families.`

Ammu is proud of the fact that her father has got recognition from several voluntary agencies for his service to the society, providing `quality second hand books` and being  a` Treasure house of  secondhand books` Among them is the `Thanthai Periyar Award` that was conferred on Alwar a few  years ago.

Alwar, though incapacitated insists on being taken to the shop at least once a week where he spends a couple of hours sitting in his favourite chair lost in thoughts and oblivious to the goings on in the shop. According to Ammu, thanks to availability of books online, the market for the old text books, which were the most profitable business, has shrunk drastically.  Though there is some demand for books of fiction, it cannot make up for the loss of revenue from the sale of old  text books

Will the  Alwar`s book shop,  made popular only by  word of mouth publicity  and which has survived so many disasters  in six decades, survive the latest attack by technology. Only time can tell!

Edited version of this article appeared in Madras Musings

Feedback welcome on rvrajan42@gmail.com or 9840392082