When Dr Shehernaz Nalwalla, vice president at The Asiatic Society of Mumbai, planned the first ever book sale at the Asiatic Library, she didn’t expect all 3,500 books on sale to be sold out within four hours. The sale which was put together within two-three days – just after the recently-concluded map exhibition at the library – was supposed to go on at the Durbar Hall till May 18 but the overwhelming response meant it ended much earlier than anyone expected.

While that left many people who had planned later visits disappointed, Nalwalla is content. “Every book has now got its reader who would be interested in reading them, instead of them just lying around because we could not put them up in the library,” she says.