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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: November 9: ‘Reading is to the mind what food is to the body’, this old age adage is still popular among the book lovers across the city. However many readers from this city of 21st century find it hard to feed their mind with fine books due to the shortage of good book stores in our city. There is not even a single Crossword bookstore in Navi Mumbai but lately to the delight of the Navi Mumbaikars, many bookstores and stalls have come up in different nook and corner of the city nodes catering to the need of city’s book lovers.Vashi2Panvel.Com brings some such stores and stalls into limelight.

Varsha Book Center is located in the commercial hub of Navi Mumbai, Vashi at Sector 17. It would not be wrong to say that this book gallery is one of the admired bookstores of Navi Mumbai and around 100 to 120 people visit this store. “Many people from in and around Vashi come to my book center and most of the readers prefer fiction, non-fiction and classic books,” informs owner of Varsha Book Center Krishan Jha.

If you are looking for some good bargain on your favourite books then Churchgate is not the only option. Small bookstalls similar to the street bookstall of Churchgate can also be spotted in Sector 17, Vashi. From ‘Lord of the rings’ to ‘Harry Porter’, from ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ to the latest ‘The Inheritance of Loss’, these stalls are well stocked with the variety of books. The renting out of books is another attraction for these bookstalls, which rent out a book by charging Rs 25 for reading with some security deposit. Koparkhairne resident Surbhi Kumar is the regular visitor of such stalls. Surbhi tells, “I am voracious reader and enjoy taking books from these stalls as they sell as well as rent out a book at dirt cheap rates.”

Vaikhari Book Shell at Panvel is another place for book lovers. This book depot has whopping collection of 45000 books in all the three languages, English, Hindi and Marathi. It is believed that around 100 people in a day drop in to check out books. While speaking to Vashi2Panvel.Com the book depot proprietor Ksrisagar divulges, “Many readers visit my book center at regular basis and around 200 to 250 books I sell in a week as there are not many books shops here. In Panvel we do have some book depots but they limit their collection to curriculum books only.”

Books and more at Nerul and Vox Populi at Vashi railway station are also considered as a good places to pick interesting books. Even the books exhibition going on at CIDCO ground at Vashi is offering good books at throw away prices. So next time when you are on books-collecting-expedition do check out the city stores before you move towards Mumbai in serach of a book.

Preeti Gupta