Landmark through generations.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

In the olden times, most bazar shops would bear a framed photograph, often sanctified with a scented mala of the day’s fresh marigolds. These beloved portraits were mostly of the shop’s departed founder. The shop’s current owner, usually the founder’s son or later descendant, would sit directly under the revered frame.

Such sights no longer exist in as many numbers. Certainly not in Connaught Place (CP). The colonial-era shopping district used to be crammed with family-run shops. Over the recent decades, many of those have been replaced by uniform-looking retail chain stores, which might have their quirks, but which lack the individuality of family-run businesses. Fortunately, a few of those former CP establishments survive to our day. Take Amrit Book Company in N-Block, Outer Circle. The framed photo of the late founder, Amrit Dhar Nullay, adorns the wall behind the counter, beside a miniature temple clamped to the same wall, right above a sacred poster of Devi Lakshmi and Bhagwan Ganesh.

The sight is also significant for another reason. Old CP used to have scores of bookstores, but their numbers have drastically reduced. Amrit is among the exceptions. Opened in 1936, it is probably the capital’s oldest surviving bookstore. The shop’s early patrons included the great Dr BR Ambedkar. In fact, the first edition of his 1948 book, “The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables,” was published by Amrit Book Company.

Today, the store is stacked with books worthy of any respectable bookstore, but the store also happens to be a rare bookstore stocking a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction in Hindi. Take a look: Shrilal Shukla’s Rag Darbari, Geetanjali Shree’s Ret-Samadhi, Anita Krishna’s Khamosh Pahadiyon ke Bhoot, etc. You may also spot Hindi translations of classic novels by Garcia Marquez, Jane Austen, and many more celebrated writers from across the world.

Anyhow, bookstore’s star patron, Dr Ambedkar, died in 1956. The bookstore’s founder died in… the day former prime Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated—on May 21, 1991. His son then became the bookstore boss. Prem is soon to turn 80, and is no longer seen daily in the bookstore. The shop is mostly run by his ultra-polite sons, Puneet and Sumit. And this evening turns out to be a rare occasion, when all the three custodians of the bookstore happen to be present together. They agree to pose for the camera, huddling under the portrait of their family business’s departed founder. See photo.