We had restaurants, we had bookshops, we had places where you could go and play chess — but here was a place where all three came together,” writes Gerson da Cunha in Awakening: 60 Years of an Eternal Journey , a commemorative volume published in 2006 to mark the 60th anniversary of Chetana Book Centre, Mumbai’s eminent institution located at Kala Ghoda. The veteran stage and film actor and adman was introduced to Chetana by his friends, actor Bomi Kapadia and artist Mehlli Gobhai, back in the 1950s.
Established in September 1946 by the late Sudhakar Dikshit, former assistant editor of the Patna-based daily Indian Nation , and writer Raja Rao, the space was a single, open-plan area of 2,500 sq. ft. “A large part of the space doubled up as the bookshop, and the area meant for the ‘restaurant’ used to serve just tea, coffee and snacks,” says Dikshit’s daughter Chhaya Arya, who, now in her seventies, still helms Chetana Craft Centre. The corner that drew most crowds, however, was the one reserved for the chess table, with a black-and-white chequered wall that fittingly adorned the nook. At present, the demarcations are clearly defined: while the restaurant — known for its sumptuous thalis — and the craft centre overlook the thoroughfare, the bookshop is relegated to the back.
“Prior to 1946,” Ms. Arya says, “the space was known as Peacock Restaurant. It also housed the Sri Vidya Samiti, where play rehearsals, musical recitals and Bharatnatyam classes were conducted regularly. The now-defunct Chetana Art Gallery was opened on the premises in 1947.”
Swathed in Morbi-patterned floor tiles, the only sounds audible in the incense-laden confines of the bookshop are those of the clock ticking and the faint lilt of Hindi-film instrumental tunes playing at the adjacent restaurant. Chetana Book Centre has been specialising in books on Vedantic philosophy, spiritualism and regional literature, as well as Indian arts, crafts and heritage since its inception. Alongside slim volumes on Rumi, Mirza Ghalib, Gauhar Jaan and Bulleh Shah is a shelf dedicated entirely to the works of Thích Nhãt Hanh, a Buddhist monk of Vietnamese origin, hard to come by in most bookshops in the city. While the gargantuan volumes of the Sanskrit-English Dictionary by 19th-century scholar and lexicographer Sir Monier Monier-Williams’ occupy the topmost shelf, books about the murals of Punjab, Sikh art, and the japji and rehras (morning and evening prayers of the Sikhs respectively) are scattered on the racks below. A copy of the 82-year-old Time and Talents Club’s omnibus comprising recipes of hearty Indian and European dishes sits cheek by jowl with books on Indo-Tibetan medicine and Ayurveda.
“We reach out to a number of smaller, independent publication houses as well as ashrams across the country while curating books for the store,” says Ms. Arya’s son, Kavi Arya. He oversees the operation of the bookshop. Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita dominate two entire shelves, right from pocket-sized editions to Akshaya Mukul’s Gita Pressand theMaking of Hindu India . There are tomes on Islamic art and architecture, punctuated with guidebooks on playing the sitar and the harmonium.
“ Chetana magazine, started during the early 1950s, was a monthly periodical edited and published by my father for almost 17 years,” Ms. Arya says. Mr. Dikshit was a man of letters, a voracious reader who lapped up literature and meticulously read folio volumes of Shakespeare’s works. “A number of patrons would seek recommendations from him on which books to buy. To him, the eatery was secondary,” she says. Regular visitors to the bookshop included writer-editor Mulk Raj Anand, poet Nissim Ezekiel, parliamentarian Karan Singh, veteran journalist M.V. Kamath, and artists M.F. Husain and Akbar Padamsee.
Over the years, Chetana began publishing books as well, under the aegis of Chetana Publications. One of its most popular titles, I Am That , an elucidation of the Vedanta philosophy, comprises the translated works of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Marathi saint who lived in Mumbai’s Girgaum locale in the 1960s. First published in 1984, it was translated by Maurice Frydman, a Jew of Polish origin and a devout follower of Maharaj, and is currently in its 23rd edition.
Kavi Arya says, “To represent Indian culture in a contemporary idiom has been the endeavour at Chetana since the beginning. In fact, the crafts centre and the restaurant permit the bookshop to sustain itself. The bookshop is not a money-making venture; it reflects the academic facet in the community, and that’s what makes it different. It is the most precious part of our identity.” During the mid-1990s, he introduced the now-discontinued Chetana Forum, and wishes to reinstate it soon.
“The bookshop was host to several discussions, readings and workshops. It is important to form a communion of people through the bookshop for people to gather, exchange ideas and engage with one another, in order to fuel the practice of reading.”
Chetana Book Centre, 34 K. Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, inside Chetana Restaurant; Phone: 22851243
The author is a freelance writer
