How this Mumbai bookseller found his calling on a footpath in Matunga

Updated On: 09 December, 2022 09:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Nascimento Pinto

Almost 70 years after his father set up shop on a footpath in Matunga, Kasi Viswanathan continues to run Durai Book House on the very same spot. After taking over it 30 years ago, he has recognised changing trends and hopes to continue keeping Matunga as a hub for book lovers in Mumbai

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Kasi Viswanathan has been running the bookshop Durai Book House for over 30 years in Matunga. Photo Courtesy: Manjeet Thakur/Mid-day file pic

“One book can change your life,” says a confident Kasi Viswanathan. While he may refer to reading, it has certainly changed his life as a bookseller. The Mumbaikar has faced many challenges in his life but every time he steps on to the footpath on Shankar Matham Road he experiences a different kind of tranquillity, an extension of which is seen with his need to have books on spirituality for readers. The road sits bang in the middle of Matunga and King Circle and means a lot more to Viswanathan than it may for any other Mumbaikar. For it is literally there that he has grown up over the last four decades. That is because only a few paces away from his current shop used to be Durai Circulating Library, a shop run by his father, known as Durai Seth, among the locals, for over 70 years.

"My father came to Mumbai over 70 years ago from Tamil Nadu and started the library down this road so that people can have access to books," says Viswanathan pointing to the spot where the shop was. However, soon enough he had to move back to Tamil Nadu with the family due to personal reasons. As luck would have it, the family returned to the city for the second time, all this while the 48-year-old was still a child who wondered how he would fit in Mumbai without knowing the Hindi language.

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