Bestseller, Srinagar's Store of Memories, Will Be Missed

Srinagar: On an unusually hot April afternoon, a mix of confusion and curiosity pulled Suhail Ahmed into Bestseller, a popular bookstore in Lal Chowk, Kashmir’s largest marketplace in the capital Srinagar city.

In a corner of the small shop that has stood witness to more than 40 years of Kashmir's chequered history, a painter quietly whitewashed the block-board shelves as a smartphone blasted tacky and vulgar Bhojpuri songs.

"Are you renovating?" asked Ahmed, 30, a teacher, to Mohammad Saniyasnain, the owner, who is seated on a leather chair set against the disturbing backdrop of empty shelves that were brimming till recently with thousands of fiction and non-fiction books of English and Islamic literature, philosophy, history among others.

“No, we are closing down,” Saniyasnain, 33, replied in a gloomy tone on Friday (18 April), struggling to make eye contact.

As Ahmed left and melted into the crowds of tourists outside, Saniyasnain added: “I don’t know how I am going to face those who have been visiting us for decades.”

In the 1980s, Saniyasnain’s father Sanaullah Chiloo converted his retail outlet into a bookstore on the advice of his lawyer brother, who was an avid reader and a book lover.

Chiloo started out with a small catalogue of religious books but the business soon expanded to include fiction and nonfiction books, newspapers, magazines, stationary and, school and college textbooks among others.

Over the years, the little bookstore evolved as a treasured part of the childhood memories of not only some residents of Srinagar, but also those living in the remotest corners of Kashmir who used to travel to the capital city to shop before the advent of courier service and home deliveries.

In 2016, Saniyasnain took over the shop from his father after completing his MBA from Pune. “Over the years, opening the book store every morning and soaking myself in the fragrance of new books turned into a passion for me,” he said.

A book by Fernando Pessoa and a box of pencils is all that remains of Bestseller bookstore in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

In past nine years, the bookstore turned into a home for some rare titles on Islam and Sufism, and Urdu poetry by Sahir Ludhianvi among others. But nearly nine years and many struggles later, Saniyasnain broke the news on Monday (14 April) to a select group of customers that he was closing.

“We’re sad to bid farewell to our book collection as we’ve decided to pivot our business focus,” Saniyasnain wrote in the store’s WhatsApp group, “We know how much books meant to you, and we’re grateful for the memories. Thank you for being part of our literary journey. While books won’t be our main focus, they might still appear in special promotions or bundles in future”.

With only a handful of bookstores in Lal Chowk, the news of Bestseller’s closure triggered a flurry of nostalgic, emotional and even angry outpourings on social media platforms like Facebook and X with some accusing the owners of giving preference to monetary benefits.

Recalling his 17-year association with the bookstore, Faizaan Bhat, a Srinagar-based columnist, said that Chiloo used to treat young students like him who visited his shop like his own sons.

“He gave huge discounts and even offered books on debt for months. For me it is a personal loss. Whenever I used to visit Lal Chowk, the bookstore was my first stop. I will miss it very badly! The closure of this store tells us a lot of things about what is happening in Kashmir,” Bhat told The Wire.

Dr Aaqib Rashid, another Srinagar resident, said that he bought most of the books for his personal library from Bestseller, “It is sad what has happened but the memory of the bookstore will remain with us through these books,” he said.

Speaking with The Wire, Saniyasnain said that his family mulled over the decision for about 18 months before deciding to change their line of work. Arif Nabi, the assistant bookkeeper at the store, said that they tried different innovations to sustain the business - the only source of income for the Chiloo family.

A framed oped by historian Ramachandra Guha on bookstores hangs from a bookstore in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

“At one point we had more than 10000 books and I had to rent a room upstairs to organise special sales with heavy discounts. We also invited suggestions from customers to grow our collection as per their needs and also sold books by kilo for the first time in Kashmir to keep the readers hooked,” Nabi said, adding that the online platforms offer books at a cheaper price which has dealt a “lethal blow” to physical bookstores.

However, a recent survey by the Booksellers Association, a London-based trade body set up to promote retail bookselling in the United Kingdom and Ireland, found that young people are shunning online retailers to experience the joy of visiting bookshops and buying books from the stores.

A yougov.com survey also found that 42% Indians continue to buy books from a physical store, despite the mushrooming of online stores. “Online stores may offer cheaper books but they can’t replace the joy of browsing through bookshelves and the calming effect of walking between piles of books in a store,” said Atif Rasool, an engineering graduate from Anantnag district .

But Nabi said that their sales have plummeted, especially in the last two years after the Jammu and Kashmir administration began work on the project to turn Srinagar into a 'Smart City' under the Union government's Smart Cities Mission. Lal Chowk has been the focal point of the city’s transformation.

A customer and an avid book lover showing the latest status on his social media page about the closing of Bestseller bookstore. Photo: Jehangir Ali.

Saniyasnain, who had once hoped to expand his store to other parts of Kashmir, said that he tried to keep the trade going despite meagre earnings, digital competition and diminishing appetite for books in the new generation who he said are hooked to Instagram and other social media platform.

“Everything is about tourism in Lal Chowk and tourists rarely buy books. There was a time when customers would halt their cars outside the store. But most of them have stopped coming because, forget cars, there isn’t much place even for humans to walk around”.

As summer is just around the corner, the tourist footfall at Lal Chowk and other places in Kashmir is expected  by officials to set a new record this year.

Soon, the whitewashed bookshelves of Bestseller will be stacked with packets of Kashmiri saffron, walnuts, almonds and other hot-sellers for tourists, whose burgeoning footfall has changed the social and economic makeup of the valley's largest marketplace.

Saniyasnain said that a number of bookstores in Lal Chowk like Lords, Global Books, Yaqoob Booksellers, Presentation Books, Book Vision and Shah Bookstore closed over the years

“My fear is that the next generation will only read about bookstores. I took the decision (to change the line of work) knowing that tourism is a highly unreliable sector. However, what bothers me more is that the culture of reading books seems to be dying a slow death. The closure of our shop is not just my loss. It is also a loss for society," said Saniyasnain.

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