Delhiwale: Portrait of an ‘OK life’

Mahesh Kumar, a 60-year-old bookseller in Delhi, reflects on life and family as he prepares to end his stall, cherishing memories and spirituality.

Ensconced in his living room, Mahesh Kumar, 60, is evaluating his life.

Ensconced in his living room, Mahesh Kumar, 60, is evaluating his life. (HT)

All his five brothers are gone from the world, he says. “There are things you can discuss only with your siblings… that is no longer possible for me.”

There are also things that one is comfortable sharing only with the immediate family. In that, Mahesh is fortunate. He lives with wife, Renu, in their first-floor flat in Kotla Mubarakpur, along with daughter Himanshi, son Varun, and dog Simba. The eldest child, Ritika, lives with her husband elsewhere in the city.

As he natters on, wife Renu enters the living room carrying a tea tray. Her gaze instinctively lifts towards the small temple clamped to the wall, beside the portraits of Mahesh’s departed parents. She whispers to Mahesh, asking him to go down to the street to “Kailash Samose Wale.” The couple expound on the neighbourhood shop’s tasty samosa.

Such coziness forms the daily texture of Mahesh’s private world. He happens to inhabit a public role as well, being an integral element of an institution that many count among Delhi’s most significant cultural spaces. For 40 years, Mahesh has been administering a stall of used books in the capital’s Sunday Book Bazar. The legendary market has 150 stalls. Mahesh’s long-time stall stands out for consistently stocking books and magazines of superior literary quality. Truly rare stuff too shows up every now and then. Just last Sunday, he sold a fat stack of the now-extinct Life magazine, valued by collectors for its landmark photography. Mahesh’s set of Life were collectibles from the 1960s, containing current affairs features on historic events—President Kennedy’s assassination, Woodstock music festival, etc.

“Until some decades ago, visitors to the market were mostly interested in classics,” the bookseller remarks. “Today, most visitors look for cheap reprints of self-help books.”

In any case, Mahesh’s stall will end with him. “The business of used books involves too much bhagam-bhaag… My kids are graduates, they must have a life of office jobs.” He gradually grows sentimental. “I had to quit my graduation studies midway because of financial difficulties… the Sunday Book Bazar supported me throughout the years. It helped me successfully perform all the duties of a son, brother, husband and father; it enabled me never to be helpless in front of anybody; it has given me this OK life.”

That said, the most satisfying day in Mahesh’s week is not Sunday. It is Saturday, when he visits the Kalkaji Mandir in Nehru Place. “Our lives have become too fast, we are constantly running, we are constantly busy… praying to Mata Rani fills my heart with sukh-shanti.”

He and his wife graciously pose for a portrait with their beloved Simba.