'One book can change your life'

"One book can change your life," says a confident Kasi Viswanathan. While he may refer to reading, it has certainly changed his life as a bookseller. The Mumbaikar has faced many challenges in his life but every time he steps on to the footpath on Shankar Matham Road he experiences a different kind of tranquillity, an extension of which is seen with his need to have books on spirituality for readers. The road sits bang in the middle of Matunga and King Circle and means a lot more to Viswanathan than it may for any other Mumbaikar. For it is literally there that he has grown up over the last four decades. That is because only a few paces away from his current shop used to be Durai Circulating Library, a shop run by his father, known as Durai Seth, among the locals, for over 70 years.

"My father came to Mumbai over 70 years ago from Tamil Nadu and started the library down this road so that people can have access to books," says Viswanathan pointing to the spot where the shop was. However, soon enough he had to move back to Tamil Nadu with the family due to personal reasons. As luck would have it, the family returned to the city for the second time, all this while the 48-year-old was still a child who wondered how he would fit in Mumbai without knowing the Hindi language.

Setting up shop
While Viswanathan was juggling the challenges of growing up, his father was dealing with his own troubles and one of them was losing the library he once had. Without wasting any time on sulking, he did many odd jobs along the way to put food on the table. "Somehow none of it made him as happy as running a bookshop and he came back to the very same footpath and set up shop a few feet away," says Viswanathan. It is at this very place that a Sion resident now pays his respects every morning when he opens his shop because not one day goes by when he doesn't remember his father.

Recounting his schooling days, Viswanathan reveals he could never adjust to studying at the school because of the language barrier and by the time he was 15, he gave up and spent the day with his father at the library. It was during this time that he used to help him but never took to the business. "I did an electronics course and even tried to run a shop but I did not succeed so I came back to the bookshop." By this time, the central suburb had already developed a reputation for being one of the important hubs buzzing with book lovers in the city apart from Fountain in Fort.

He shares, "I decided to learn the business properly this time around because I had to earn. I got a spot here and started selling books of all kinds. The shopkeeper next to me put me in touch with somebody in the business who could help me get more books because I knew none of the other competitors would do it." Viswanathan admits that he did think of quitting the business when he was 27 years but he ended up coming back to it. Now that he was back, the Matunga bookseller wanted to take back the spot that he had lost along the footpath and set up a shop. As luck would have it, he did buy the shop at a spot approved by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and has been there for the last 20 years. "I called my father and told him, ‘I have something to tell you, I have got a shop on this footpath', so he asked me, ‘Is it the same spot?', I said, ‘No, it is even better' and he was really happy," shares Viswanathan.

Recognising changing trends
Ever since then, there's been no looking back for the Mumbaikar, who once struggled to speak Hindi but not only speaks the language fluently now but has also taken it upon himself to continue maintaining Matunga as a hub for book lovers. The footpath where his shop is located, has seen a lot of change over the years. While some booksellers have passed away, there are others who have simply packed up and gone back to their village. "Even though they aren't there, I want more people to come to Matunga to look for books and not leave without getting it. So, I look for people who will man the shop and run it to continue the legacy we have kept here." This has helped many youngsters also land a job and earn a living by running the book stalls close to his bookshop.

It is also the reason why the bookseller is constantly thinking how to engage more customers and readers. Viswanathan has been selling books for so long, he remains unaffected by the online medium. In fact, he believes people still love the look and feel of a book, and that is why they keep coming. With so much experience, he has seen several trends shaping up over time. "I now focus more on children's books apart from all the other books and graphic novels. I have seen so many parents come to look for books for their children as young as six-months-old, and that's when I realised the demand for them. There are now touch-and-feel books where the kids can touch them and learn more. I have a customer, who came to me as a three-year-old and bought a book and is now buying investment books from me only." Often, he lets people take books for free, especially if they haven't been selling for long and more often than not a student comes and takes it and that makes him happy.

Such is the legacy of the Durai Book House that even during the Covid-19 pandemic when he couldn't keep the shop open, Viswanathan used to only open it and sit and open the shutter when people came to ask him for books. "I am so attached to this place that I have even come as early as 4 am on some days and started the day," shares Viswanathan. It is evident that the place holds a very special place in his heart. "A customer came to me once with a bag of books but I didn't take them because they were very old. However, I got the feeling that I should at least take a look and I found a comic book by Louis Bohmer and it so happened that it had the stamp of my father's library from 70 years ago," concludes Viswanathan, marvelling and painting a mental picture of the book's journey.

Also Read: How a visit to Japan made this Mumbaikar start a comic book library in Versova