An Institution called A H Wheeler !!. Review on A H Wheeler - Kolkata

India celebrates its 63rd year of independence tomorrow. And as all of us brace up for the celebrations, I cant but help pay my homage to a hero. A hero that has stood by me since my childhood. A hero that has shaped me more than probably any other institution. A Hero called A H Wheeler !

Whenever I'm faced with long hours of ennui that accompany railway journeys, I rush to the Wheeler outlet and become a little child again.... Leafing through books, smelling them, checking out titles and upsetting the cart...and often ending up buying titles that I already possess !

Since its inception in 1888, the institution of A H Wheeler has come a long way. It was started by Émile Moreau, a French author, and T K Bannerjee, an Indian businessman, with headquarters at Allahabad. The name was borrowed from Arthur Henry Wheeler's, a much successful London bookstore during the time. In 1950, Bannerjee took over the company and since then he along with his grandson Amit Bannerjee have been running the company. Today Wheeler has over 375 bookstalls spread over more than 250 railway stations in India.

Lately, it very existence has been uncertain with the Railway Ministry often not eager to renew the five year contracts with the company and the ministry planning to do away with the concept of sole selling rights.

What you get at an AH Wheeler outlet - Fast readers(Wodehouse, Sheldon, Grisham), Pulp Fiction (James Hadley Chase, Surendra Mohan Pathak) , Contemporary novels (Arvind Adiga & Chetan Bhagat), Self Improvement/DIY Books (How to become a Leader, How to become a Salesman, How to read a Book), Popular Magazines (Femina, Filmfare, Sarita), Newspapers, fast selling classics (The Count of Monte Cristo, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights), Hindi Literature (the entire Premchand Series, Tagore, Harivansh Ray Bachchan,), Comics (Chacha Chowdhury, Archies, Tintin), SMS books (jokes, shayari) and so on.

What you dont get - Hard to think of anything that you wont get in any of the AH Wheeler outlets. One of my prized possessions, a rare edition of "Poems & Prophecies by William Blake" was bought at a Wheeler outlet ! But yes, the smaller ones would be short on choices. So if you happen to have read all the 5 five books that this one stocks in your favoured genre, its your unlucky day. Try another genre !

Wheeler is to be credited for its sheer collection of books that cater to the widest possible literary tastes within the limitations of space, money and availability. It has mastered the art that the Starmarks, Crosswords & Oxford Bookstores of the World havent been able to do with all their computers, research and accessibility.

Today, there's nothing that I miss more on my books than the familiar stamp of A H Wheeler. Its like that Old Brown Shoe. The leather may have weathered but it is still the most faithful and reliable shoe that many like me would bet their lives on !

I suppose it wont be an exaggeration to say that quite a few of India's railway stations have been built around the A H Wheeler Bookstall. And that for many a traveler, the Board of "A H Wheeler" has signaled the onset of Civilisation !