A life in books

• The story of Rajitha Dilhan who runs the second hand bookshop at the Economic Centre in Narahenpita

Selling books is not like selling any other merchandise, says 35-year-old Rajitha Dilhan, who has been immersed in the world of books since he was a child, assisting his father, Sarath Priyankara who has been for decades involved in the used book business, ever since Priyankara’s father, Pantis Appuhami gave up the taxi business in the 1960s to transform the three shops he owned down Maradana into second hand book selling outsets (which is now part of the famous second hand book shops bordering the roadside).

“My grandfather was the pioneer of the used book trade in the Maradana-Fort area. He was not a learned man or overly fond of reading. He just wanted to transit from the taxi business where business was dwindling (after many successful years) into a different one – so he experimented starting a tea shop in one of the shops, a very small space and then made the adjoining similar space into a bookshop. When he ran the taxi business the shop space was used for the taxi drivers to sleep overnight.”

“He found the book trade interesting. He started collecting some books from those who were migrating and selling them and soon had quite a collection which he housed in the bookshop. We still have some of these books. It drew people who wanted to check out books that they wanted while also drinking a cup of tea,” says Rajitha.

That was the time when some of the key second hand booksellers of today, who are veterans in the book field *such as the famous Deen the Bookman (who is said to be able to advise even professors on what they should read according to their area of subject specification) started out as young book sellers.

One by one the small kiosks which had provided space for taxi drivers to sleep and which had some other petty businesses soon got transformed into bookshops selling used books. Now for over five decades this strip of road between Maradana and Fort has been iconic for housing small shops selling used books. Most of the sellers now are third generation of those who started out in this line of trade.

“Tracing the early history of how this book road developed – Rajitha says that the third of his grandfather’s shops was rented to Deen around the 1970s. Deen was then a young assistant to one of the other well-known second hand book shops and wanted to branch out on his own.

“After some time Deen moved out. By that time my father, Sarath Priyankara had got established as a veteran bookseller in Maradana who knew and understood books. Above all he is to date loved by all readers and writers who throng his second hand bookshops because of his reasonable prices. We all know that those who frequent our shops are those to whom books are more important than food!” laughs Rajitha, adding that he and his father respect each other’s space and do the business independently.

While his father still runs the bookshop in Maradana under the name Priyankara Bookshop, Rajitha, has made forays into using technology creatively for selling of the books, categorising them and running online pages segmented into themes such as Sinhala, English, Fiction and non-fiction, having an average of around 10,000 clients. This is in addition to his own two shops and the lending library.  “I enjoy handling the online business. Every half an hour or so we update books. I have an assistant and sometimes my wife also helps me. I was among the pioneers who started online book selling. Now many others also do it.” 

“All of us second hand book sellers live in this strange book world – we live and breathe books. All our conversations revolve around which rare well known book found by whom amongst the second hand book sellers in Maradana. I miss those conversations now that I am on my own – having two adjoining shops – one for books and one for books and antiques in the Economic Centre building in Maradana.”

“I love books. When I was working in my father’s shop as his assistant in my teens I was chased away so many times after being thoroughly scolded because I spent my entire time there reading the books and happily ignoring the customers,” he laughs. 

He has started higher education in the Open University in the area of entrepreneurship but says that exams are held during the time of the Book Fair and that he chose being at the book fair representing his shop rather than being in the exam hall!

“I learnt all about entrepreneurship from the age of 15 – at least entrepreneurship and innovation when it comes to selling used books. A used book is a relic of love – of books and has more charm than a new book. I found the classes and the exams interesting in a theoretical way but I felt that in innovation in the realm of reading and books we have practically learned to perfect.”

“We interact with all the famous authors and scholars and different types of readers. Our online business strategy and face to face selling methods have to be customer-friendly – those who come to my bookshop at the Economic Centre in Narahenpita take their time reading and browsing. I never rush them. We have extended the closing of the shop in the night because we do not want to disturb some of the readers who seem lost in a book,” he says.

“I strictly follow ethics by following the first come first served rule by reserving online only for the very first customer who showed interest in the book. I never violate this. We know that the cost of living is high and some of our prices are as low as Rs. 375. It is finally not about money. It is about finding precious knowledge that cannot be priced and enabling another to make use of it. There are those who use the lending service in my shop regularly – taking as much as 25 books a month. There is a separate internal online system I have developed for this.”

Rajitha says that his own library is his independent haven having well over 3,000 books that includes at least four first editions of books by Martin Wickremesinghe. 

“When I bought one first edition book of Martin Wickremesinghe it was priced at Rs. 3,500 many years ago and many thought I was crazy. I will never sell them,” he says and I swallow my question with sadness as I say goodbye and think what kind of luck I need to accost a first edition of Martin Wickremesinghe for my own library. 

(SV)