Dreamer: Gyan ka Dariya: Midland Book Shop

So it's time for me to start with my Micro. To make it more clear for you guys, the Micro research includes choosing a particular shop, stall or store, and collecting information about its history, civics and geography. Honestly, it wasn't really difficult for me to choose my Micro. After getting to know that 'Midland Book Shop' was one of the oldest, and rather the very first shop to open up in Aurobindo Market, I was already sure that this was it!

So in my 2nd visit to the market, I went straight up to the shop owner of the Midland Book Shop and he agreed to tell me all that he knew. He told me that his was one shop out of a chain of four similar shops, and also that all the four shops were owned by four sons of a the man who started the chain.

However, according to me, the most interesting input he gave me was about the meaning of the name of the shop. He told me that Midland meant 'Ocean' or 'Dariya', and his father used to think that a book shop is an 'Ocean of Knowledge' or 'Gyan ka Dariya'. Thus, the name.

Oh, and I also bought a book that I was interested in since a long time, a book with a compilation of 'Urdu Couplets'.

Urdu Couplets

Photographed by- Shikha Gupta

Overall, I was amazed by all the information that I received. Also, I found a lot of pictures where I could spot the shop owner with a lot of popular entities. Here are a few glimpses from my visit-