I just got wind from a social media update that Gangarams is closing.

First, I sighed. Then my eyes swelled with tears.

Quick rushing by of  images: sitting in the corner of the fiction section and pouring over books and authors, browsing through the greeting cards section, greedily eyeing the stationery section while going back and forth with the student budget to see what could be sacrificed to get some extra stationery and of- course the hurried picking up of course material (that part of the section where the least amount of time was spent). If not visit the store every time one passed by M.G Road, one atleast made it a point to peep into the window display to see the new book releases.

Gangarams started off being a bookstore and branched into something like a knowledge- hub. A place where you could turn to for any material or supplies for the upper chamber- a wide range and variety of music, tech gadgets. Also, sensible gifting options, an amazing range of greeting cards and some tantalizing stationery.

Mum  and Dad both went to Gangarams to satiate their voracious appetite for books. I did too- through teens and especially during the college years- for course materials, novels, notebooks, other supplies, greeting cards and to just get lost within four walls stacked with books.

We live in times when running a bookstore is all about running a business alone. But when Gangarams was set up, it was for the love of books and for the convenience of book- lovers. And it is sad to see that the bookstores of the former kind are having to close shop in competition to the latter. Earlier this month, the historic Manneys bookstore in Pune closed doors forever. There was a painful adieu where fans and book- lovers came by to say goodbye.

Today there may be many more bookstores, including the virtual ones, spoiling us for choice, variety and glamour. However, they lack the charm that the likes of Gangarams most certainly have. It almost churns my tummy that this store- in its grand four- storeyed affair, is closing forever. They may relocate, but it won’t be the same. Gangarams Book Bureau was one of the few remaining elements that made M. G. Road in Bangalore what it truly is/ was. Under the influence of a strong bout of emotion and nostalgia, permit me to also say, a part of Bangalore is going away too.

Sigh.

How many more allusions will the universe cast at me?

I get it-

The world is no more the way I knew it!!

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Photo credit: Sindhoor Pangal

And I’am reminded of Eliot’s concluding verse from The Hollow Men:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

– T. S. Eliot