Hyderabad: Abids still draws book lovers on Sundays

Hyderabad: In spite of the advent of online and payment platforms, kindle and free online sites for reading, book lovers in the city still make it on Sunday to the famed Abids Bazaar. Though their number has dropped considerably, it is their loyalty that is keeping the bazaar alive aver book sellers.

Md Khader Shareef, one of the book vendors who has been in the business for the past three generations, said, "After the online sites came up there has been a drastic fall in the number of customers. There were times when we used to earn a minimum of Rs 10,000 on Sunday. Now we rarely get to earn even half of it."

When asked about how he manages to get the right books, Shareef says, "I gather books from everywhere. Sometimes we get them from libraries getting shut down. Sometimes we buy entire carriers full of cartons from various cities, which are our primary source of second-hand books."

GR Raju, a trader from Chennai, said, "Whenever I come to Hyderabad, I visit this bazaar to see if any of the rare copies like Readers digest magazines and book series of 'Amar Chitra Katha' for my granddaughter. Comparing to online and other book stores, the price is a bit low in this market."

Satyanarayan, 70, another book vendor who sits near the main road, said, "I have been selling these books for the past 10 years. Students of various colleges come and buy books for competitive exams and rarely buy novels. However, with the advent of technology, television, Internet, mobiles and e-books, the number of book lovers flocking the Abids Sunday book market has been dwindling. The sales over the last few years have been dropping too."

"I have been selling books for 8 years here and it is very sad to see the number of buyers dropping. There has been a sharp decrease especially since 2010. Our business used to peak in summer, when students would spend their holidays reading fiction. But people are more fascinated by television and movies, and there is a huge drop in the number of youngsters stopping by," says Imran Khan, a bookseller.