Indianexpress.com : comments : Sunday book bazaar of Daryaganj is no more

Sunday book bazaar of Daryaganj is no more

New Delhi: Daryaganj wore a deserted look this Sunday. Gone was the hustle and bustle on the pavements, the yellowed texts stacked against walls, books piled up helter-skelter, hawkers shouting and book lovers, young and old, jostling through the crowds. And the change has come to stay. The 45-year-old b ....Read more

Comments

Post comment

7 Comments |

Reading takes a BeatingBy: Dr Sukanya Datta | Tuesday , 7 Jul '09 11:23:45 AM Reply | Forward I love the Daryaganj book bazaar and have spent many delightful Sundays browsing...picking up out of print books for a song, meeting "old printed friends" and companions of my childhood...is this Sunday Book Bazaar really such a pestilential place that the police perforce had to close it? My pocket was never picked, no one heckled me...EVER!!!My heart bleeds.Please can good sense not prevail even once?

disgusting....and very sad..By: arpit goel | Monday , 6 Jul '09 13:09:30 PM Reply | Forward It is very sad to know this.uesterday only i was about to go there but due to some reason could not go there.I used to buy the whole lot of my fiction novels as i lov ereading.Also the books for my competition i bought from there..........very sad to hear this.YEH DILLI KI POLICE NIKKAMI HAI.Instead of checking out all those eveteasers putting a ban on educational stuff is just pathetic....

Sunday Book Market ClosureBy: P. Sthanu Subramanian | Saturday , 27 Jun '09 19:23:13 PM Reply | Forward Strange, off all the things the police could only close a book market that does not anything behind when it has closed by evening. Funny if you cannot police a city you close it down. The market is a very useful place for finding II hand books. When there was frequent problem of eve teasing in places like Pragati Maidan, additional police in mufty were deployed, the annual exhibition was not closed down. The market should be moved to Connaught place inner circle on sundays. It is not on a main road and even if one child gets to like a taste of reading it would have been worth it. Cant the booksellers fight it out in the Court like the one's at Nehru Place where the pavement market was restored by the court.

Associate Professor Delhi UnivBy: Prof Bharat Gupt | Tuesday , 23 Jun '09 21:16:41 PM Reply | Forward This is just another example of how insensitive to tne needs of eduction is the police from the local SHO to the IG of Delhi. They look at the book bazar as a headache. They do not wish to exert to regulate and supervize it. Books for them were useful to mug certain lines to pass the IPS exam, the constables got appointed by bribing the officials and politicians, they never even saw any books. At what level was this decision to close down the bazar taken and was it discussed with the book users of the city? There are hundreds of sabzi markets run on the same basis in Delhi. Are books not even as essential as sabzi or all those illegal encroachments that pay regular hafta to police? Bazars selling all kinds of junk can go on but not of books. I am not surprised that the PM of India has not been able to appoint a minister for culture even after of month of his taking oath for the office. It is the same story from top to bottom.

IT'S LIKE THROWING BABY WITH BATH WATERBy: ASHOK | Tuesday , 23 Jun '09 11:57:05 AM Reply | Forward INSTEAD OF CHECKING EVETEASING (IF ANY)AND WORKING ON MAKING THE TRAFFIC RUN SOOTHLY, POLICE HAS PUT A BAN ON THE SUNDAY BOOK MARKET ITSELF. THAT'S WHAT DELHI POLICE IS EXPECTED FROM. THERE'S LOTS OF ILLEGAL THINGS RUNNING IN DELHI AND NO BODY KNOWS UNDER WHO'S PERMISSION IT IS BEING DONE. THERE IS HARDLY ANY FOOTPATH IN DELHI WHICH IS FREE FROM ENCROACHMENT BUT THEY CANNOT BE FREED AS IT IS SOURCE OF HEFTY EARNINGS FOR DELHI POLICE.LET DELHI POLICE CLEAR ALL THE WALKWAYS IN DELHI FROM ENCROACHERS AND THEN CLAMP DOWN ON THE SUNDYA BOOK MARKET.IN THE SAME DARYAGANJ ON THE SAME STRETCH, IS IT POSSIBLE TO WALK ON THE FOOTPATH ON ANY WEEKDAY? SIMPLY NOT. BUT THE POLICE WILL NOT ACT AGAINST THEM AS THEY ARE SOURCE OF HANDSOME EXTRA INCOME FOR THEM. THIS MOVE OF AN INSANE POLICE MIND MUST BE MET WITH SOLID OPPOSITION.

Sunday Book MarketBy: Vikas Rajput | Tuesday , 23 Jun '09 10:28:15 AM Reply | Forward Why not close down everything so that there are only roads and vehicles plying on it!

Sunday Book ShopBy: R.Ramachandran | Tuesday , 23 Jun '09 5:06:54 AM Reply | Forward Sir,From your write up it is not clear what is your stand. Whether any such activity without licence and which causes problems for the policing is to be discontinued or not (forget about the inconvenience of persons who come to buy the books or who usually sell the books). In fact a beginning has to be made somewhere. In an ever growing city like Delhi, any activity which is affecting the free flow of traffic is to be forthwith put an end to. One hopes that there is no political interference in the affair and the market is not permitted again. If it is permitted then none of us can ever ask any right thinking authority / official including the police to act in a correct way "only when we want". We have to permit the officials to do their duty so long as they do it honestly and without any personal or pecuniary angle to it.