R.K. Alwar did not want his books to be interred with his bones; and that was his final wish, not expressed on his deathbed but when he realised he was doddering towards it. Alwar’s daughters Ammu and Julie have honoured that wish against daunting odds, ensuring the iconic Alwar Book Shop stays rooted to the spot where it has always stood at Luz Church Road in Mylapore. Alwar passed on in 2018 and since then his daughters have witnessed a parade of reasons to go back on their promise. If they had, nobody could have faulted them for it. The pandemic tested their resolve and the ongoing Metro Rail work has done the same thing. But these events had only ended up playing the devil’s advocate, revealing to the world that this resolve comes with a cladding of steel.

Around Luz Corner and on this section of Luz Church Road, multiple retail businesses have trotted away in disappointment, but the duo has held on bound by that promise. Metro Rail construction has made Alwar Book Shop difficult to access, barricades and route diversions have discouraged many regulars from visiting it, and the once bustling pavement book shop is marked by a conspicuous lull. And changing reading habits induced by digital technology is queering the pitch further. But get this right, the daughters bear Alwar’s legacy (which is their mother Mary’s too; she also passed on in 2018) not as a burden, but as believers in it. There are believers from outside the family too. For them, Alwar’s affable nature makes it compelling to believe in his legacy and dream, which began in 1939. Ammu points out there are still a good number of customers best described as “loyal patrons”; they continue visiting the book shop because of their affection for Alwar.

The sisters take turns to look after the book shop both living just a stone’s throw away from it for easy accessibility and for the unstated reason of refreshing memories. Family time has been around this shop. After marriage, Mary joined Alwar in managing the shop. Ammu recalls her maternal grandmother worked as a nanny at Good Shepherd Convent and, as a child her mother often accompanied her to the school, gradually acquiring English language with its myriad nuances. Though neither of their parents had extensive formal education, their love for literature was immense. “Our mother spoke English beautifully, and both our parents knew books and authors better than most people I have met,” Ammu recalls in a tone betraying boundless admiration. 

For their father, the bookstore was never merely a business; it provided him with meaning for existence; it was a dream he gave his youth away for. Ammu remembers how her father never spent a single night away from the shop and would brave torrential downpours to ensure not even a corner of a shop got drenched. She laughs while recalling, “He loved books so much that he would absent-mindedly call almost everything a book, even if it was a piece of cloth.”

Perhaps the irony is the greatest story at the Alwar Book Shop is not inside any of those thousands of books lining its shelves, and it is unwritten. This story is lived out every day by two daughters: returning to the same spot, made hallow by his father for those who worship learning and knowledge.

Ammu believes their father has never truly left the bookstore he established at this spot when he was around 16 years old.

Her voice choking and tears in her eyes, Ammu adds, “My dad is still here. We know he is. That is why we will never give up on this shop, even on our hardest days.”

Alwar Book Shop, open from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., offering fiction, non-fiction and academic books can be contacted at 9884773591.

Bookmark shifts from a page of grief to one of growth

On Mount Road, Siva Book House tells a similar tale of loss, memory and resilience. Founded and nurtured by brothers Siva and Sundaramurthy in 1977, the bookstore located in a shopping complex on Blackers Road off Mount Road is now run by Sundaramurthys wife, Malliga with the assistance of their son Maheshwaran. For nearly six years, the mother-son duo has kept the shelves occupied, refusing to let the bookstore become a forgotten chapter. A homemaker for most of her life, Malliga never once imagined she would one day run the very store she used to visit only to bring lunch for her husband, whom she fondly calls “my sir”. It was Maheshwaran, their younger son who insisted the shop should not end with his father’s passing and patiently taught her the nuances of bookselling. She now travels across Chennai using various modes of public transport to collect books as per the trends; a routine once unknown to her now defines her life.

The store, open from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., has a range that extends from magazines and fiction to non-fiction and academic books. Siva Book House was a prominent presence on the pavement on Mount Road just a dozen footsteps away from the Anna Salai Post Office. Overtaken by various changes that unfolded on that section, including the razing of a shopping complex, Siva Book House moved “indoors” into this shopping complex on Blackers Road. With reduced visibility, the bookstore thrives largely on the patronage of old customers.

“If someone urgently needs a book, I will come as early as nine in the morning,” Malliga smiles.

She fondly remembers how her husband handpicked every collection and occasionally took a young Maheshwaran along, unknowingly nurturing his love for books. Books entered Malliga’s world through her husband’s voice rather than the printed page. “My sir would narrate stories to me because I was not comfortable with reading any language,” she recalls. “I may not have read them all, but I still remember every story he told.” Though sales has declined with the rise of digital reading, Malliga believes technology can never replace the joy of walking into a bookstore, breathing in the scent of paper, and finding solace among the shelves. Their regular customers include teachers, government employees and media professionals.

Long after all the books on its shelves have been read, Siva Book House will have a story to be read, outside those book covers: the story of a woman who stepped outside the confines of her home, picked up her husband’s unfinished chapter and found the courage to keep writing it.

Siva Book House can be contacted at 9952934175.

National Reading Month