“If you don’t find a book anywhere you will definitely find it at Happy Book Stall.” This is the claim of customers who have been regular visitors of the book store for long years. Mumbai’s oldest book store named ‘Happy Book Stall’ lies on our Hill Road and has been there since the last 60 years.
You name it and you will find the book there. So, you can find anything from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series to Rabindranath Tagore’s Collected Stories, from George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones to Hussain Zaidi’s Dongri to Dubai; Happy Book Stall is the one stop solution for all those avid readers who are always desperately waiting for the new series of books as soon as it releases. The bookstore has sold limited edition titles which no one in India has sold.
Happy Book Stall believes purely in the reading business therefore has a wide range of novels, children’s books and magazines. The variety of books ranges from fictional, non-fictional, inspirational, self help, autobiographies, fantasy, management, children’s stories, cookery books, religious anthologies and dictionaries. New authors can also sell their own books at the store and probably get a good start.
The book store also has a wide range of Indian authors. As the store has followed the mantra of catering to purely reading, there are no academic books but a number of management and self help groups that may help develop your intellectual capabilities. Kids can have a gala time in the children’s section which hosts a number of fun filled interactive books full of bright colours and entertaining stories.
And if the book store does not have the book you want, then the owner Rajan Jerajani will arrange it for you. He explains, “Sometimes we don’t have the edition that the customer is looking for so we arrange it through network locally and abroad. We always have customers who have searched every nook and corner of Mumbai to find a particular book but end up spotting it here at our store.”
Being the oldest book store of Mumbai, Mr Jerajani recollects, “My grandfather set up this store in 1947. We had 2 book stores in Bombay, one in Colaba and the other one at Bandra Hill Road in the name of Happy Book Stall. However, now we just have this one book store left at Bandra.”
Since the book store has a long standing history, it has made a unique bond with its age old customers and till date makes a deep connection with all the new customers that step in. “Customers come from different places of India in fact, even out of India to visit our store. Often, these customers come from far and wide just to say a ‘Hello’ and revive the bond that we share with them,” he exclaims. With such a strong bond and friendly approach, Happy Book Stall has lived up to its name of spreading happiness by being something more than just a normal book store.
However in this modern age of fast paced internet and mobile phones, people prefer reading online and also ordering books online. Moreover, Bandra has some huge book stores with luxurious facilities to sit and read in a good silent ambience. To this competition Jerajani responds by saying, “We believe in meeting the requirements of the customers by focusing on the availability of books. But, we encourage them to take or continue the idea of reading as this is fizzing out these days. Our customers know us and therefore they have a trust factor coupled with assurance. Despite of the advancement of technology, customers will come as they develop a certain type of trust due to our recommendations. The trust shown by the customers helps us to develop and sustain our business.”
Learning is an ongoing process and gaining knowledge, a never ending task. And, the best way to learn is to learn from everything that is around you be it people or books or the internet. “I had zero knowledge about books when my father employed me at the book store. Whatever I have learnt, I have learnt from my customers. Talking to them and interacting with them as filled my cup of knowledge. As things have changed and digitalisation has become a part of every individual, we have developed a website called as http://www.happybookstall.com where we can reach to the mass audience and the children of Bandra. Parents can overcome the stepping stone of reading for their children by buying their first book from Happy Book Stall. I am sure that the people carrying out a reading habit in Bandra have at least once visited Happy Book Stall.”
If you have a nose for books or a hunch for reading, or if you haven’t yet visited Mumbai’s oldest book store, step at Happy Book Stall to discover the pool of knowledge. The humble senior Rajan Jerajani and his son Krutarth Jerajani will be waiting for you to spread the happiness.
Ronald Rodrigues
