Delhiwale: Portrait of a book hoarder

Ali Asghar Shah loves buying books but struggles to find time to read due to his busy job and distractions from his phone, yet he continues to acquire them.

Ali Asghar Shah has a problem. He loves to buy books, and he loves to read. But these days, he doesn’t get enough time to read. Not only because he has a busy day-job as a senior marketing manager, but also because of that attention-hijacking device called mobile.

The living room is full of family photos and showpiece knickknacks. But it is primarily crammed with books. (Mayank Austen Soofi)

“I read a page or two of a book, and then I find myself turning to my phone to check a WhatsApp message, or watch a video on YouTube…”

There was a time when Ali would read books on his bed till late into the night. He still lies awake on the bed till late into the night, but usually ends up watching movies on his mobile.

Even so, he continues to buy books, almost daily, he says.

This evening, Ali is with his mother in their central Delhi apartment. The living room is full of family photos and showpiece knickknacks. But it is primarily crammed with books. Over a cup of kahwa chai, the mother speaks up in a teasing tone. “Our house is choked with books. Every room! Try stepping into the chhat wala room—you can’t!”

Ali looks embarrassed, shifting the conversation to his reading taste. It happens to be a bit too diverse. He reads Rumi’s spiritual poetry; he also reads books on business. See the sofa-side shelf: Elon Musk’s biography is beside Al-Ghazzali’s Ethical Philosophy, and Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov is enjoying company with Saifuddin Amos’s Bitcoin Standard. Then there’s Michael Greger’s book with its very long title—How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older. Ali laughs nervously: “I hit 39 this month, so I thought this book will be my ideal birthday gift to myself at this stage in life!”

Meanwhile, the mother continues. “While my son sits in his office, I have to open the door for his Amazon deliveries!”

Now Ali enters his bedroom. Books everywhere. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird is buried deep under a pile, still unread. Ali shyly confesses that in a world where everything centres around the internet screen, “owning these books makes me feel like I’m holding onto something that will actually last.”

Later, posing for a portrait, he declares he will continue to acquire books “because that is my way of pushing back against all the noise.”