“A few days back, a group of young boys and girls came to my stall and started to flip the pages of my books. They looked at the covers in admiration and ran their hands across the heaps of books that I had to offer. They looked at me and smiled. “Assalaam Vaalekum Chicha, ek kilo kitaabon ki khusbhoo milti?” (Greetings Uncle, we’d like one kilogram of the fragrance of these books) My face lit up. Only a true bibliophile would know and enjoy the smell that these pages have to offer.
I grew up around books. My father dealt with the purchase and sale of rare books. I couldn’t read them, but the names of those classics haven’t left my mind. Frahang-E-Asifiya, Farhang-E-Nizam and other timeless Literature that I was too juvenile and undereducated to understand. It was then that my love for books developed. I loved being around them and hence I was sure I wanted to make a living by selling them. So, when I was hardly 10 years old, my father gave me some of the English novels he had, introduced me to some of his friends in this line of business and left me to work hard. Not once did he turn around and look at me. The adversities I went through in rightly valuing books, buying them, selling them and consistently running my little bookshop, come rain, come hail, come unbearable heat, for nearly half a century, made me who I am today and sustain my family! From the streets of Koti to the streets of Abids, I’ve sold books everywhere!
The Sunday market is a special attraction to visitors. People from all walks of life come down in hundreds to marvel at, read and of course, buy books from the street thronging with booksellers. There have even been thieves! And despite all of us being competitors in terms of sales, the sellers share a strong bond of brotherhood. We always stand up for each other if a thief or troublesome visitor comes our way. I think that’s the magic of books: They bring people together irrespective of what divides them!”

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