Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Amazing Bookshops in Triplicane

Amazing Bookshops in Triplicane

Triplicane is famous for many things. Not just the Sri Parthasarathy Temple. And new comers to Chennai particularly bachelors find Triplicane as a right abode of mansions and share accomodations. There is one more salient feature of Triplicane. Accompanied and supported by places like Moore Market and Luz. It is a noble academic service by some small shop keepers who buy and sell second hand books. In Chennai there are shops which sell novels and other bad books which are plenty. But in these three places you can find a lot of platform shops where you can find even rarest of the botany, zoology or mathematics from tenth, twelfth to even research sciences.

Last thursday when I went to Triplicane, it started to rain a bit. I took a shelter near a fancy store, the platform near which there was a bookshop. Thanks to the heavy downpour that I could'nt come out of the shop and this poor bookshop was covered by a transparent plastic cover. Even that time, when somebody asked about a topic, the bookshop wala could rightly say whether the topic is available or a nearest author is there. It was really amazing. Even the famous bookshops including Landmark chain of bookshops and Higginbothams, when a topic is asked to a representative, the most probable responses would be

  1. Representative 'X' scratches his head.
  2. Representative 'X' would call representative 'Y'
  3. Representative 'X' would say 'One second sir' and he would disappear into the wild.

After jumping here and there in a wild limbo dance and then regrets that the topic is unavailable. He does not know the alternatives either or he could not take up a request for the topic. Furthermore, these so called big shops have a healthy tax and charges for the books besides the strong lack of committment. Alternatively these small shops, if you request them and come, they would try to get you the book somehow in a week. But the only unfortunate thing is that these bookshops do not have even a proper shelter for them to save themselves from rain and shine.

Would the Government or NGOs look into these issue and provide them some rehabilitation or assistance?

1 comment:

Deepak Vasudevan said...

Just recalled a proverb in Hindi called 'Oonche Makaan Pheeka Pakvaan'. I think the rough equivalent in English would 'All that glitters is not gold'. Is'nt it?

We are attracted by mundane worldly covers but the actual inner value sometimes is underestimated. And those only resorting to artificial glittering sometimes make humourous situations. I have shared a similar glittering humor with ICICI Phone Banking over here.