NEW DELHI: Every Sunday morning, a one-of-a-kind colorful maze takes shape near Delhi Gate, where thousands of paperbacks and hardcovers rise in towers and spill on tarpaulin beds, setting the stage for generations of readers on hours-long treasure hunts.
From popular romances to classics in English, Hindi and Urdu, to manga, children’s comics, philosophy, cookbooks and coffee-table art albums, the open-air Sunday book bazaar has been serving as a cultural institution for decades.
Initially, and for the longest time, it was located in the Daryaganj market — an old commercial hub in Shahjahanabad, the 17th-century capital of Mughal rulers, where publishers began to settle after India gained independence from British rule.
A few years later, the need for cheaper books emerged amid increasing readership and the expansion of university campuses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Small vendors began to arrive in the area offering secondhand volumes, and, until recently, every Sunday hundreds of them lined a kilometer-long stretch of pavement in Daryaganj.
