Delhi’s Daryaganj book market is open after 41 days, but there are no readers

Bookstores and shops in Delhi's Daryaganj opened for the first time in 41 days as the lockdown restrictions are eased.

A stationer in Nai Sarak waiting for customers | Photo: Unnati Sharma | ThePrint

New Delhi: The bookstores, publishing houses and stationery shops that Delhi’s Daryaganj market and Nai Sarak are famous for opened 41 days after the Prime Minister first announced a nationwide lockdown beginning 25 March. While a few shops opened on Monday, some bookshops and stationery shops were opened on Tuesday for the first time. But unlike liquor shops, these establishments wore a deserted look as shopkeepers waited for customers.

“We have opened the shop on the second day of the relaxation anyway, but no customer has come since the morning,” Gagan, owner of a stationary shop in Delhi’s Nai Sarak, said disappointed. “Let us see when we will be able to have our customers back”.

Sushil Kumar, another stationery shop owner, isn’t optimistic about the number of customers increasing in the coming days. “Until schools and universities, which have the highest demand for stationery, start functioning, we are not expecting much.”

Nai Sarak is famous for its stationery shops | Photo: Unnati Sharma | ThePrint

Books weren’t categorised as essential

But it wasn’t all bleak. A-One Stationery, which stocks educational material for higher classes, did see some customers on the first day of opening. Sumit Kumar came to the shop to buy some books for his son who studies in Class 12. “Due to the sudden lockdown, all the bookshops had closed down. Since online classes have started, my son was facing some difficulty to study without the books. All the syllabus material is not available in e-books. Some books are old editions and lack some parts. So we had to come out today and buy books,” Kumar tells ThePrint.

Meanwhile, publishing houses and bookstores are not seeing many customers either, but they have observed that the queries have increased. Vanshdeep Gupta from Dehati Pustak Bhandar in Daryaganj, established in 1936, hopes that the opening of the shop will also encourage shipments and home delivery of books. “We have opened our shops, but we are expecting more demand for home deliveries. I believe that in the coming days, the demand will only increase.”

Alind Maheshwari, head of digital and e-commerce operations at Rajkamal Prakashan, however, believes that audio and e-books have not completely taken over yet. “After we opened our store yesterday, we started receiving more queries from people over the phone and email if the shop has opened. It feels good to know that published books aren’t easily replaceable”.

The store has also seen the inflow of some customers in two days. “We are making sure that we can deliver books in orange and green zones where the delivery of non-essential items is allowed,” says Maheshwari, who was not happy about books being categorised as non-essential items.

Some bookstores and stationery stores did see customers on the second day | Photo: Unnati Sharma | ThePrint

Keeping customers engaged on WhatsApp

Although publishing houses and bookstores were closed during the lockdown period, but these shops made sure that they stay connected with their readers.

“We began a new initiative for people who couldn’t access audio books or e-books. We are sending excerpts from books to our readers over WhatsApp so they don’t lose their connect with reading. Every day, we send three excerpts from chosen books and one poem to our readers. Around 10, 000 people have connected with us over WhatsApp,” Maheshwari tells ThePrint.

At Dehati Pustak Bhandar, the owners are also using WhatsApp to streamline sales and customer queries. “Sometimes a customer wants to see the content of a particular book, so we send it to them over WhatsApp,” says Gupta.

Sunil Kumar Gupta, vice-president of the Delhi Stationers Association. Photo: Unnati Sharma | ThePrint

Social distancing and sanitising

With chalk-drawn circles outside the stores and shopkeepers wearing gloves and masks, it is clear that social distancing and hygiene are of utmost importance to the proprietors.

Sunil Kumar Gupta, vice-president of the Delhi Stationers Association, said, “We have stationery for school and college students and separate dealers for office stationery. I deal with the latter whose demand is still there as some government offices are functioning, but I am only dealing with important orders.” The shopkeepers are also keen to avoid cash payments.

Gupta added that in the absence of labourers and carriers, owners are bound to do everything. “Since yesterday, we have seen very few customers, so right now everyone is mostly busy cleaning and sanitising the books and the shop. We appealed to file traders who are a part of the association to open their shops too. Paper traders have yet not opened their shops. But in absence of labour, things are difficult. Let us see when the labour force comes.”