In the era before Covid-19, there was a courtship between humans and books; one that repeated itself daily in the lambent confines of bookstores in my city, Mumbai. It was a ritual for me that stopped temporarily because of the lockdown.
Who knows whether the magic will return when bookstores in Mumbai reopen? How will Covid-19 change the experience of shopping for books – books that challenge, disconcert, or sometimes peer through to the core of your being? Each book has a synaesthetic energy field radiating around it, and feeling it sustains one’s spirit.
As a professional journalist, poet, and writer, I derive not only knowledge and emotional sustenance from a visit to a bookstore, but also a definition of the self. Of all the places that reinforce my understanding of who I am, bookstores are undoubtedly the most impactful. In the near future, will I be able to visit a local bookstore in Mumbai, a virus hotspot, without experiencing pangs of anxiety? Will other bibliophiles like me be able to do the same?
A long wait
I spoke to managers and proprietors at three of the most well-known independent bookstores in Mumbai – Kitab Khana, Trilogy, and Title Waves – to understand how their businesses had been affected by Covid-19, what their plans to lure visitors when the lockdown is lifted are, and how the ways in which they conduct business may change when that happens. Each one of them said that business would take a few months to stabilise, and that a new normal would have to be found.
“After the lockdown I believe there will be some changes in buyer behaviour because people want to be safe,” said Trushant Tamgaonkar, executive director, Title Waves. According to him, many customers will avoid physically shopping for books, which will impact footfalls and sales at brick-and-mortar bookstores. “This is likely to continue till (the) end of the year,” he said. “I feel that for a few months people will be afraid but after a while they will adjust to living with the new normal.”
Jagath Tekkatte, chief operating officer of the iconic Kitab Khana at Flora Fountain, echoed Tamgaonkar’s observation. “It will take at least two to three months, because even if our store opens in June, customers would not want to visit it immediately.”
Another serious threat, one that will soon loom over the horizon, is the notorious Mumbai monsoons. “The rainy season is about to start,” Tekkatte said. Going by personal experience, even without the lockdown, people would think twice before braving waterlogging and crawling trains to buy a book in rainy Mumbai.
A palpable sign of the new normal will be the increased measures to enforce safety. Let the thought of entering a bookstore without a mask perish. Your body temperature will be measured before entrance, and you’ll be let in only if you have no fever. As you walk inside, you’ll have to use the hand sanitiser provided by the store, and visitors and staff will have to maintain social distancing within the bookstore. The shop might bear special markings for this. The staff too will have to wear gloves and masks, undergo temperature checks, and maintain social distancing. Clearly, the book buying experience might become surreal for both seller and buyer.
How to reach customers
Another likely development is that the bookstores will come closer to us in Mumbai, metaphorically speaking. The phones in the bookshops haven’t stopped ringing during the lockdown. Committed patrons have been calling up to enquire about books and to order specific titles. The enquiries include books from all genres, but a specific few of them are in greater demand. “There are some parents who have been calling me up for book recommendations for their bored housebound children,” Tamgaonkar said. Most of these children are in the age group of three-to-five years.
Meethil and Ahalya Momaya, co-founders of Trilogy, well-known for its curation, said, “A lot of our patrons have always kept in touch with us via email or messages to let us know which books they have their eye on, so we can order those books for them.” This is continuing, they say. After the lockdown ends, they see themselves spending more time “interacting with readers via phone / email / WhatsApp than in person, and more dependent on various delivery channels.”
Bookstores in Mumbai are considering delivering books through courier services. Tekkatte of Kitab Khana told me how a couple of publishers have come forward with suggestions to use Dunzo, a local delivery service.
Kitab Khana is “considering” using this service, but is hesitant due to the per-kilometre charges levied on each parcel. Tekkate is waiting for train services to resume in the city to deliver books to customers. He said “there would be disruptions” in supply until the resumption of train services, because they allow extremely cheap, quick transport across the city. Title Waves said that some publishers have agreed to pass on book inquiries made to them to bookstores located near the customer.
But delivering books might be a hard task if the city struggles to pull its supply and transportation networks together after the lockdown. Moreover, the supply chains of the publishing industry are expected to be disrupted too. The Momayas of Trilogy believe that imported books might also become more costly in Mumbai because of an increase in international freight costs owing to a limited number of operational flights. So they have been considering reducing the number of consignments until the freight charges are reasonable again.
That’s not all. As they pointed out, “Bookstores in Mumbai rely on warehouses in Mumbai and Delhi to get their books. We expect that the courier and transport companies whom we depend on will have to suddenly scale up to meet a new demand, partly because of the two-month-long backlog and partly because of shortage of staff and labour at various levels. This bottleneck might increase the amount of time it takes for books to reach us from Delhi, especially the special orders and non-major releases, which will be a lower priority for the distributors and publishers.”
Staying top of mind
Mumbai bookstores rely on events to increase footfall and fuel a buzz. I’ve attended a number of events, and featured in a few, at Kitab Khana. The store occupies thousands of square feet of prime property in the heritage Somaiya Bhavan building in the Fort locality, and faces Flora Fountain and Hutatma Chowk memorial. A two-minute walk from Churchgate railway station and ten minutes away from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the bookstore, established in 2011, is infused with the history and the rhythm of South Mumbai. It is as “SoBo” as it can be.
“Our bookshop is in a prime area. If they (the proprietors of Kitab Khana, the Somaiyas) rent it out, they can earn much more than we are making right now”, Tekkate said. However, he does not see that happening – the proprietors are very passionate about running the iconic bookstore.
Title Waves and Trilogy, North Mumbai’s hip answer to SoBo’s Kitab Khana, too, fancy themselves as literary hubs and organise literary events such as book readings, launches, and panel discussions. They are spacious stores; Title Waves has 6,000 square feet of space devoted to books.
After the lockdown, if bookstores do host literary events, they will look drastically different from what we’ve seen so far, Tamgaonkar said. These events will not be densely packed because fewer people will be allowed inside with strict safety measures in place.
Title Waves and Trilogy are located in Bandra, one of the most expensive localities of Mumbai. And because they organise art events, they feature prominently on Mumbai’s cultural map. Were they to rent out their premises, they too would gain more financially than they do now. The question is, why don’t they?
Clearly, the answer cannot be found in the bottomline of the business, but in the hearts of the people who drive it. While the bookstores seem to be for-profit ventures, it is also true that they stem from a deep love for books and the work involved. “We are definitely passionate about books and the book business, but the library and bookstore is definitely a for profit venture,” said the Momayas. Trilogy hosts events that range from book launches to panel discussions; I enjoyed attending a recent reading by Amrita Mahale from her novel Milk Teeth in Trilogy’s library space. The store also offers discounts on book purchases to their library members.
Kitab Khana amplified its social media presence during the lockdown. “We were in touch with our customers through social media,” Tekkatte said. “We are continuously engaging them through virtual book launches and literary readings, which is the only way for us to survive in these times.” It’s also a strategy to keep Kitab Khana uppermost in the readers’ minds, so when we open our bookshop it will bring the readers back.”
The Momayas of Trilogy are banking on both new and unfulfilled demand for books. “People buy books to know more, feel more, get closer to understanding the complexities that make up our world, so the book business will always grow, and in our current scenario, slowly go back to normal,” said Ahalya Momaya. For each of Mumbai’s indie bookstores, the challenge is to keep offering its unique experience in its own way in the post-Covid world.
Post-script
Kitab Khana is offering “curb-side deliveries” from June 8, and will accept payments through UPI or bank transfer. The store will also deliver books using a local courier company, WeFast. Title Waves is also delivering books using the same courier company. In addition, the shop is now permitting customers to enter and browse, provided they take a number of safety measures, such as wearing masks, sanitising their hands before entry, and maintaining physical distancing inside the store. The store is letting only five customers enter at a time. Bookstores in Mumbai have opened for business again, but cautiously.
This series of articles on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on publishing is curated by Kanishka Gupta.