If you have been a Mylaporean for ages and frequent Luz Circle, then you would know the famed Alwar bookshop.
That ragged-looking pavement store with old and new books – fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, reference books, children’s books – stacked under torn tarpaulins, near the gates of The Mylapore Club. Famed for being the big draw in times past when known and unknown people stopped by to pick up novels, text-books, and rare tomes sold to the raddiwallah or donated here.
Alwar and his wife who managed this place have passed on and his two daughters now take turns to run the shop.
One of them says that there is a demand for children’s books of late. “People are asking us for old or new books that kids can read or use to paint. They want to keep the kids occupied in pandemic situations,” said Rosemary.
But the shop has limited books and Rosemary is appealing to Mylaporeans who have used books for children – in English and in Thamizh – to offer it to this store. “We cannot pay much and we do accept donations of used books because we have seen very hard times since last year,” she adds.
The pavement store also welcomes donors who can offer LED lamp/s so they light up their space can run the sales till about 7 p.m.
The store is open from 10 am to 7 pm. Lend a hand if you can.
