Watch: This pavement bookseller of Mumbai could teach all salespeople a thing or two
“I choose my customer, because a good book is rare.”
Bablu Chakraborty has been selling books for over five decades. His shop, which was set up in 1969, runs from a pavement in Mumbai’s Fort area. And this seller of second-hand books is happy and contended, because he is also an avid reader himself. The book that changed his life, as he put it? Robert M Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Chakraborty knows his customers well, luring each of them with the specific books they might be interested in, adding pitches like “Nobel Prize winner!’ and ‘You probably have this one, but you don’t have this one.’
A short film (above) made by Camera and Shorts captures a day in the life of the bookseller who believes in three essences of life: “One must have good books, good friends, and enjoy good food”.