Several businesses, hotels and restaurants, etc have shut down amid the pandemic but what breaks a Mumbaikar's heart is the shutting down of the city's one of the most loved and best bookstore Wayword & Wise.
Author Vivek Kaul shared the news on Twitter. "Sad news for book lovers of Mumbai. Wayword and Wise, by far the best bookstore in the city, is shutting down in another eight-nine days. Personally this is a big loss for me," he said.
Situated in Ballard Estate, Fort, the bookstore was loved by city's bibliophiles who'd often spend their time at the store picking up a classic.
The bookstore opened in mid-October in 2015 and was owned by Atul Sud who runs a food importing business and curator Virat Chandok.
The store housed over 7,000 books and which were selected by Sud and Chandok after scanning through nearly three lakh books for their customers.
In an interview with the Indian Express, Chandok said, “We have the kind of books that no one else in the city is willing to keep. Most bookstores have a very limited idea of what their customers are looking for and so they focus on stocking bestsellers.”
The idea of opening the bookstore for Sud was his love books "and we wanted to share this love,” he said.
Bombay bibliophiles expressed their sadness over the shutting down of the bookstore and some even said that it was a "personal loss for them."
This is not the first time a Mumbaikar's heart has shattered into pieces.
Little more than a year ago Strand Book Stall, an iconic book store shutt down forever on the ninth death anniversary of its beloved owner TN Shanbagh.
The book stall’s many charms—its year-round discounts, the prompt and able assistance, the mix of bestsellers and rarely stocked titles—couldn’t stand up to the increasing turn to online delivery and digital readers. “Much of the staff left after death of the shop owner and shifted to a neighbouring book store. And many customers were lost due to the technological advances and low-priced footpath stalls,” said Annapa Kini, staff of the store for 23 years.
