`Shelf Life` is a weekly series that explores the reading culture in Mumbai. In part one, Mid-day visits Dr Ambedkar Book Centre, once a magnet for students and book sellers in the city, which is now reduced to a make-do stall. Hit by a series of hardships following its demolition in 2016 by political miscreants and the impact of Covid-19, the book shop located at Dadar’s Ambedkar Bhavan is managed by Mangala Waman Kadam, the lone showrunner at the centre who continues the struggle to revive it.