On a cool afternoon day, thanks to Cyclone Biparjoy, Dilip Mahindkar sits on a handmade stool next to his street bookshop on the pavement facing Flora Fountain, situated exactly at the back of the now-defunct Central Telegraph Office. The Mumbai bookseller takes a quick break while busy petting cats around him and two of his salespersons deal with an endless stream of customers. The books sell like hotcakes! But that’s only because quick-thinking Mahindkar made a good business decision that helped him make money, especially after the pandemic. 

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the 42-year-old to shut his shop for six months. But being in the books business for close to 20 years, he thought of a way he could earn money. “I decided to start selling books for Rs 100 each after the pandemic. I realised a lot of people were facing difficulty with money and so was I. These are some of the most popular books and people want them. They are not worried about which bookshop they can get the books from. All they worry about is how they can get them cheap,” says Mahindkar, who came to Mumbai from Kolhapur in the year 2000 in search of a job.