The humble Marathi bookstore lives on

The oldest outlet of the Majestic Book Depot—as old as the Quit India Movement—hasn't changed much with the passage of time. Since July 1942, this little bookstore in Girgaum Naka, a bustling traditional precinct in south Mumbai, has catered to the city's Marathi bibliophiles. It began life as a hub for tomes and pamphlets on India's freedom struggle; now the life story of US President Barack Obama and Harry Potter books are the hot favourites. But it hasn't grown in size or gone digital.

In the age of big retail chains and virtual bookstores, Majestic is a little piece of the city's history and a testimony to the survival of the humble bookstore. Moreover, Majestic's sales figures, along with those of the few other shops in Mumbai selling Marathi books, suggest that the Marathi bookstore is indeed not dead. The store's manager says they sold 18,000 copies of their current best-seller, a biography of Obama by Marathi writer Sanjay Avte, in two months.

Browser-friendly: Majestic Book Depot stocks translations of popular English best-sellers. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint

It is about a month since Nitish Rane, son of politician Narayan Rane, paid a visit to a Crossword outlet in Vashi. Swabhiman, the political organization he represented, had got complaints that the store didn't sell Marathi books and he and his men decided to talk to the management (Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, or MNS, has been crying itself hoarse over this issue for the past few months). Crossword now stocks Marathi books at its outlets in Vashi, Shivaji Park, Peddar Road and Malad, says its deputy manager, marketing, Shivaraman Balakrishnan.

It made me think. Was the once vibrant culture of Marathi book reading almost extinct? Who stocked old and new Marathi titles? Where did Marathi readers go for books?

The shelves in Majestic Book Depot's really narrow confines (their outlet in Thane is the biggest) are crammed with books. A 10-volume set of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories in Marathi jostles with Yayati, a 1959 classic by V.S. Khandekar. Vithal Prabhu's Niramay Kaam Jeevan, a guide to good marital sex by Majestic Books, the store's publishing arm, stands next to a 1982 edition of a biography of Adolf Hitler by V.S. Walimbe. Another of its own titles, Annapurna, a recipe book by Mangala Barve, is in its 54th edition. "It is still popular as a wedding gift," the store manager says. There are titles authored in the 1920s to those fresh from the press.

In the hour that I spend digging among the shelves (causing minor avalanches twice), only one patron comes to browse. Two others want specific textbooks and one buys a copy of Annapurna.