Un-edited - It is
long. Make it 600 words. Photo will be needed.Note marks made in this colour.
Feature
Regal book bazaar
By Ibrahim Buriro
There is lot of people going through piles
of books, indulged in picking and leaving them back, some are looking at table
of the contents thoroughly. Others moving slowly through street eying to find
there a book of their choice. Looking at the price everyone tries to fetch as
much as possibly he can afford. This is none other than Regal book Bazaar,
which take place on Sundays. Regal chowk is at Saddar town Karachi.
Most of the vendors spread sheets on the ground and place books on them.
Busy in dealing with customers, because its morning and most of the people come
early as possible to grab their favourite ones, I any how managed to ask from
one of the vendors from how long this Book Bazaar taking place. “It’s older than
you son”. Just replying this he gets back to his business.
It’s don’t take place exactly on Regal chowk but two lanes ahead from
it. Inside the street you will find both sides of street full of books, mostly
spread on sheets, and footpath. Street in not cleaned as monsoon showered this
week every often. There are piles of books ranging from Urdu to English mostly
and some Sindhi as well. In this Street, originally these are electronic shops
but on Sunday all shops are closed, so these book sellers find good opportunity
to bring their stalk. “We usually buy these books on rupees per kilo” said
Arshad who have quite impressive number of books in his stalk, from Sidney
Sheldon’s novels to Philip k Haiti’s
history of Arabs. As I was walking ahead a young man probably university
student inquire for the price of the history of Arabs from seller. 200 hundred
gets reply. And you will be astonished, 700 hundred pages book on two hundred
rupees only!
You will feel that there will be no place
for cheaper for books than Regal book bazaar. For some, this is a part time job
but, most of these vendors living on selling books on footpath to make their
ends meet. As you enter into street there is plenty of books, digging through
piles of books to find your favourite genre, involve passion at Regal book
bazaar, because lane is so long and grabbing for your favourite one will take
time and it can be an exhausted process, but surely book lovers won’t mind, as
there was lots of people indulged in the process. Although there is lot of
books in English but this is best place for Urdu literature, there is
collection of novels, from Quratul ain Haider to Ishfaque Ahmed. In humour,
from Ibne Insha to Mushtaque Yousifi, and in poetry Ghalib to Habib Jalib, sab
milta hai yahan. Going further there is sharbat wala if you want to
stop for few minutes and enjoy sharbat to regain your energy, because
it’s only a start, there is plenty ahead.
20 mien le 20 mien le lo, this voice will echo in your mind, throughout the street. A 12 year
boy having Suzuki full of books will attract you nonetheless, although there
you will find hardly a master piece but children’s literature is in abundance.
And if you want to buy some books for children with illustration this is the
place. And it’s important because science says those who read at young age do
better in their life than those who don’t. Attracting children towards reading
is the best gift you can give to them at their age. Most of the books available here are cheap
paperback old and new and some pirated. And prices ranging from 20, 30, and 50
mostly. Urdu literature’s master pieces cost not more than 200 hundred. From
piles of books I found out my favourite English cricket commentator and former
test player Michael Atherton’s biography. And there is sheer joy in finding
your favourite things, sometimes price don’t matter. Other genres include
philosophy, history, poetry, and cook books, old magazines such as national
geographic and Urdu digests. Farooque a
frequent visitor at Regal book bazaar says he came from Sindh University
all here to grab his part. “You see I love reading, my favourite writers
Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment to Lazely Hazilton’s after the prophet, are
easily available and I love being here and books are much cheaper than rest of Karachi and Hyderabad”.
Other thing I wanted to add was variety of books available there.
Khushwant Singh once wrote that rather than
restaurants and cinema houses, the ultimate litmus of town’s sophistication is
the number of books shops it has, and the kind of they stalk. Books like Maut
ka Manzar and Qabar Ka Azab are best sellers in Pakistan but scenario at the Regal
book bazaar is different, these kind of books are rare here. But Karachi has its own image despite last decade in violence
and disturbance, Karachi
has managed home to various book publishers and second hand book trade is at
its peak. All of the book lovers are
well aware that they are in tiny minority, reading is in serious decline after
the computer, mobile’s invention. But internet especially after the 3G people
most of time majority of the people spend time surfing Facebook and other
social media sites, book reading is not so common. But seeing crowds at the
places like Regal book bazaar, Frere hall etc. One feels things are not dark as
we might feel. Reading
nourishes individual it’s one of the most beautiful and fruitful skills humans
achieved after forming civilization. So if you are planning to buy books, Karachi is heaven for book
lovers, starting with Regal book bazaar, a great place to get food for mind.
By Ibrahim Buriro Roll No: MC-2k13 , Second semester
August 2015
