It was February 2018. Strand Book Stall, located off Sir PM Road was shutting shop on the last day of the month. This columnist recalls the vacuum-like, gutted feeling that took over, because it felt as if it was truly the end of an era. Coming to think of it, that phrase [the end of an era] was first used in 2009, when we learnt that its founder, Padma Shri T Shanbhag had passed. Like most newspapers, we too had run tributes for both the affable bookseller and later, when his labour of love had to down its shutters from its famed address in Dhannur building. On both occasions, sampling the mood in the newsroom, it was evident that only a handful of us journalists had gone into mourning; mostly Bombaywallahs who understood the massive impact that the humble man had made on readers across generations within the city and beyond, and how with its shuttering, it meant readers had lost a home forever.

We spoke about its loss on the literary and cultural landscape for long, at cultural gatherings and over chai addas. It couldn’t be replaced – man, or the landmark that he had so lovingly built and nurtured till his last breath. For the rest in the newsroom, he might have possibly fallen into the bracket of ‘iconic bookseller’. The part about his legacy needed some explaining. I remember a colleague going through great lengths to share her thoughts with a newbie journalist, who was in her third year in the city, about the unimaginable reach that his bookstore had, and the care with which he personally treated every curious mind who walked into the tiny bookshop – across age groups and social strata. I am not sure how much that chat affected the young reporter, though. But the fact that we had lost an important voice in the city left an uncomfortable feeling, one of numbness, for a long time.