Death Notice – Fact & Fiction Booksellers is Closing
Death of a landmark.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Founded in 1984, Fact & Fiction, Delhi’s most eclectic bookstore, will soon close.
“In a few weeks from now, I will be bringing down the curtain on Fact & Fiction, a small bookshop I started in New Delhi, more than 30 years ago,” says the bookstore owner Ajit Vikram Singh on the website daily O.
In a rather playfully teasing yet hurtful note, Mr Singh says, “The city now has one less indie bookshop: A city that has had too few bookshops to begin with, and hardly any noteworthy chain store, the likelihood of another bookstore coming up and making a difference is pretty slim. Especially in this current environment of reduced retail sale and high rentals. On that count alone, it’s an irreparable loss. I maintain books are highly tactile objects and cannot be sold on the internet alone. The art of browsing and the serendipity of finding unconnected books are hard to emulate in the virtual world. The number of people who come in to find books, then to compare prices on their smartphones, while the slightly sensitive ones merely photograph the book and then order from home, only goes to validate my point. The books, which customers take for granted, are there in the shop because of booksellers’ perseverance.”
In the next few days Delhi’s heritage lovers should visit the bookstore to archive it in their cameras. Meanwhile, The Delhi Walla once again celebrates Fact & Fiction Booksellers through photographs taken across the years.
We’ll always have amazon.com
1a. (Ajit Vikram Singh)
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Mr. Ajit Vikram Singh, owner of Fact & Fiction Booksellers, always had some
fabulous blues playing softly in the back ground. It made spending the hours in his book shop a treat. I shall sorely miss the man & his groovy vibes.
That is truly tragic. I have no words to describe my sorrow on reading this, yet I feel I must at least leave a comment to mark my sense of loss. The silver lining of the grey virtual world. Sigh!
Delhi loses another little jewel. Bookshops, run by their owners who love books themselves, and stuffed with just books, books, books – are truly bits of paradise. How can online shopping for a book compare with the pleasure of browsing through books that just happen to catch your eye, inhaling the unique scent of new ink and paper, chatting with the erudite and interesting owner, and finally leaving, clutching a parcel that is both exciting and comforting. Mant thanks to Ajit for the years of unparalleled happiness he gave the book-lovers of Delhi.
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