Some Misty Wistful Ramblings!

Sometime back, Crossword near our home shut shop. Crossword! Where we went to buy books; or to just walk through their aisles and sift through their shelves; or to catch a seat in their corners and browse through a book; or to carry a few books to their tucked in coffee shop and try to decide which to buy over a cup of hot or cold coffee.  

I don’t remember when this Crossword near our home set up shop. Must have been at least 10 or 15 years ago! When online shopping was still not rampant. When the E-Reader was still so new. When audible was something bibliophiles never even considered. When the smell of a new paperback in one’s hand brought sensations of thrill and anticipation. When one slept with a book on one’s bosom, dreaming of sweet romance or read the night away welcoming dawn with the last lines of a suspense thriller.

I went to Crossword when I wanted to celebrate. Or when I was feeling low and down. Just entering that place lifted my mood. It was my me time. My guilty me time. The time I stole from my little children, from my household chores, from my evening walks.

As time progressed and my children started growing, Crossword became a place for us to hang out and bond. Any Sunday afternoon, the three of us would just set out for Crossword. We loved spending hours there, looking around and discussing books and everything else. We discussed coloring books, sticker books, ABCD books, Do-it-yourself kits and then grew up to discussing teen-romance novels, fantasy, murder mysteries, psycho thrillers, coming of age fiction. We discussed the toys, the T-shirts, the movie DVDs and the rows of paints and stationery that were strategically placed right near the cash counter.

 We often ended up buying a couple of books and some stationery. But lately, when online shopping had caught on, I would put the name of the book I liked on Amazon or Flipkart and check the price there. I would try to convince my kids that the book they wanted was available at a discount online. Sometimes I would win the argument and many times I would not. Not that I minded, it was worth paying an extra bit for the experience of touching, feeling, smelling and fast-reading books.

With time, maybe more people started preferring the discount on websites to the experience of a physical bookstore. Maybe more people started preferring an E Reader or an Audio Reader to the feel and smell of a paperback. Maybe more people started preferring spending time on the OTT platforms than in the company of a book.

I cannot help the mist in my eyes or the pull in my heart when I just pass by that area. We have such happy memories of Crossword. We went there to buy books. Or we just walked through their aisles and sifted through their shelves; or sat in a corner and browsed through a book!