The Bookseller of Delhi

A Queer Place

It is the mad establishment of an eccentric, grey-haired man whose colored silk underwear sometimes show up as he bends down to adjust piles of newly-received stock of books lying bundled on the floor. The book-box of a bookshop has a single entry, facing Priya Theater's box office in the fashionable Basant Lok district of New Delhi, a sort of roofless mall that hums with beautiful faces fixed on beautiful bodies. After walking through the door, besides which stands a rather dull window display, try to ignore Mr. Ajit Vikram Singh—the bookshop owner—sitting on the left side, his desk parked by a stack of old issues of Granta magazines; he himself perhaps listening to Ella Firzgerald in his iPod Nano.

Keep going straight.

First Glimpses

Reach the extreme end which is a few steps ahead (remember the shop is small), turn towards the shelves on the left and settle your eyes on rows of travel books - as conventional as an anthology of an American magazine's best travel writings (Best of Outside), as fascinating as an account of a woman's journey from Europe to Asia (Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle), as crazy as the 19th-century description of a Victorian lady's travels among the diseased of Siberia (On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers).

Further Excursion

If you are a new-fiction type, turn back and come near to the glass door, which refracts a warm blend of sunlight into the shelves inside. Rotate the ring-around and pick up your copy of the latest Alice Munro short stories (Runaway).

The shelf just behind the ring-around is cluttered with non-academic, well-written, thinking books on the Middle-East and Islam. Rich collection! This author picked up his favorite book on Iran (Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran) from this spot. Reza Aslam's exciting first book on Islam (No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam) is still lying there. In hardbound!

If you will stop staring and wondering at the smirking face of Mr. Ajit Vikram Singh, you may perhaps notice a not-so-visible section on his right side (which means towards your left since you are facing Mr. Singh), weighing down at the bottom, almost touching the light-brown carpeted floor. That is the best part of the Fact & Fiction. This collection is neither fact nor fiction. It is about food. Pick up all the MFK Fishers (Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Woolf, etc.) and Elizabeth Davids (French Provincial Cooking, South Wind Through the Kitchen, etc.). If your taste in food writing tends towards trash, take out all the three autobiographical works of the Danielle Steele of food writing - Ruth Reichl. (Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise)

The Eminent Gentleman

Mr. Singh, the owner of Fact & Fiction is a person of enviable social standing. He has served in a jury that judged the best essay in a literary competition organized by Outlook magazine, the Newsweek of India. He is an extremely close friend (from school days) of Vir Sanghvi - Managing Editor of The Hindustan Times, sort of India's The Washington Post. Both Mr. Singh and Mr. Sanghvi live a well-nourished lifestyle, spending gourmet evenings together in 5-star-hotels, dining at their elegant and expensive restaurants.

One frequently written and often heard facet of Mr. Singh favors a school of thought that he is an extremely well-read man and that no book is foreign to his ears and eyes. It is strongly recommended not to give much attention to such rumors. On more than five uncomfortable occasions the owner was seen spreading his eyes wide when this author asked about this book and that author.

Article Author: Mayank Austen Soofi

Mayank Austen Soofi owns a private library and four blogs: The Delhi Walla, Pakistan Paindabad, Ruined By Reading, and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos. Contact: mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com

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