Celebrating Marathi language and culture, one book at a time

When Anant Ambekar was growing up, his mother, Arti, was a librarian at a Borivali East school called Yojana School, today known as Mangubai Dattani school. As luck would have it, Suhasini Kulkarni, the headmistress at the time encouraged her to complete a librarian's course. It probably set the course for the rest of their life because soon after, the school head asked the family to put up an exhibition of children's Marathi books in the late 1980s. Being surrounded by Marathi-medium schools in the neighbourhood, they decided to take the leap of faith, one that allows them to boast of a wide variety of Marathi literature.

Arvind Ambekar, Anant's father and Suhasini's husband, shares, "At that time, I had no idea of how to display the books. Suhasini Kulkarni taught me and my wife how to set up the stall, exhibit the books and how to place them so that it will catch people's eye." At the time, Arvind was barely seven years old. "She was our first guru," the second-generation bookshop owner chimes in, continuing, "It was a seminar where people from outside of India were supposed to come there. My mother's brother has a bookshop in Girgaum, and her childhood has been around books. So, the headmistress went with my parents and selected the books herself from the shop and helped set up the stall."

From exhibitions to the bookshop
It set the ball rolling for them as they started doing more exhibitions not only in that school but other schools in Borivali and beyond too. However, the challenge arrived when the books had to be kept somewhere. Since their house that they were staying in at that time was small, they could only keep so much in it. "We had too many books and they needed to be kept somewhere. So, we took the shop next door on rent but as always, the rent increases," says junior Ambekar. Having started their journey in the books business, they mastered the art of selling books and decided to take a leap of faith and start their own shop eight years later in Borivali West, where they now live.

Anant says, "In 2001, my father asked me if I was keen on sitting and running a bookshop, if not, the business was okay, and we would be fine." At the time, senior Ambekar says they were self-sufficient and didn't really need to open up a bookshop as they were earning enough from exhibitions. However, instead of paying the rent, they thought it would be better to start a bookshop because of the increasing demand for books in schools. It is when they started Anant Book Shop in Jayaraj Nagar.

It only further reaffirmed their belief that Marathi books would sell because of the schools around including Vidyamandir School in Dahisar, Suvidya School and Paranjape School, as well as Parle Tilak in Vile Parle, and St Anne's School, where they have been putting up stalls on their annual day and day of their results too for many years. Over the years, they have worked with SSC, ICSE and CBSE schools and provided them with books.

Finding joy in Marathi books
Having grown with the bookshop, 40-year-old Ambekar shares, "Marathi literature books are such that if we search for them on the Internet, you will not find all of them. However, if you go to the shop's counter, you will get it. Some like Mehta Publishing are easily available but there are others which are not so popular online but there are many at the shop." The second-generation bookseller says even if people buy books online, one only gets to see the cover, they don't get to see what's inside.

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In Marathi literature, apart from Mehta Publishing, the Ambekars, list down the popular publishers like waiters do the menu at a South Indian restaurant. They say there are other publishers like Mauj, Mirror, Dharmik, Joshna, Anmol, Rajhans, Popular, Continental, Saraswati, Menaka Prakashan, Sadhana Prakashan, Prasad Prakashan. "There are so many spiritual as well as regular literature books," senior Ambekar adds. Most of their readers are a mix of young and old, and a handful of working crowd, as they are usually busy.

Anant, who did a marketing course early on, after his graduation, to help him with the business, points out that the trend before 2015 saw a lot more people read books physically than online. Even though the trend has changed after that, it has reversed again. He shares, "There are a lot more people now who have stopped ordering online and like to come in person and check it out because they get to know what is there in it, and what is not in it." Enjoying every minute of coming to the shop even though his wife doesn't anymore, 76-year-old Ambekar has been aware of the needs of the business. He shares, "I must know about the book because when people come to me, I shouldn't look blank."

Time and again, the Ambekars have seen the growth of interest in Marathi books. In 1997, junior Ambekar says a Keshav Bhikaji Dhawal by the late Babasaheb Purandare called ‘Raja Shivchattrapati', which was only Rs 100 then, got as many as 1,000 pre-bookings. In 2001, there was a sale for the Chaus Dictionary, which is a Marathi to English translation dictionary. The company had put an advertisement in the newspaper about two books, one was this and the other was ‘How to speak in English', and they had put up our name in the advertisement and there was such a huge line. "We used to sell as many as 300 - 400 books daily," he adds.

There used to be a lot of people who used to come for Marathi Diwali magazines. The Ambekars used to even invite local authors from the area to encourage people to read. Later on in 2012, Ajab Booksellers from Kolhapur had a sale of their 350-400 book titles for just Rs 50 and they had sent them as many 100-150 books of each title to sell, and they did a sale of Rs 4,50,000 in just 10 days.

Having made important decisions over time, since they had a licence from the Maharashtra Government to sell school textbooks, they sailed through the Covid-19 pandemic, unlike many others. "While we had to stop initially, the Balbharati textbooks could be sold after the first few months, so it wasn't too bad for us." Now, they are back in business, and have survived the times.

Little did senior Ambekar know that when he came to Mumbai from Kolhapur in 1968, he would work in the books business. Interestingly, both him and his wife have been associated with books much before they started the shop, which also has English literature books and stationery items today. As soon as he reached Mumbai, he started working with Keshav Bhikaji Dhawale, who was a religious book publisher, for one year, and travelled to different places to sell books and part of the job.

It is this that stayed with him even when he worked as an engineer for 23 years in Mumbai. "I know all the bookshops between Girgaum and Dadar. I have even gone to houses and sold different kinds of books like rangoli books too," says the older Ambekar, who did that from 1993 to 2000. Younger Ambekar says people used to have that kind of bonding in the earlier days, but that isn't there anymore, and the permissions that they needed to ask to enter a residential complex eventually made it difficult to continue selling books like that.

Today, Ambekar's mother is retired from her school job since 2007, and occasionally comes to the shop, due to her age. So, does the older Ambekar intend to retire any time soon? "I am quite satisfied with coming to the shop and meeting new people and learning from them," he says on a parting note before going to lunch.

IN PHOTOS: Love Marathi literature? This Borivali bookshop has a diverse collection

1 year agoPHOTO GALLERY