When I started this venture, I had no inkling
that, one day, I will be organising the closing-down sale of Timeless Art Book
Studio and, in that sense, I am somewhat upset — perhaps even a bit sad,”
writes Raavi Sabharwal, 69, in an email to regulars as he announces the closure
of the 20-year-old Timeless Art Book Studio in South Extension-I.
Timeless is — was — the only bookstore to
have a king-sized bed and a rocking chair as well as a Harley Davidson parked
inside, surrounded by wall-to-wall bookshelves packed with thick, large,
gleaming titles on aesthetics, ranging from art and architecture, costumes and
textiles, rugs and carpets to automobiles, graphics, jewellery and fashion,
garden and landscape design, photography, travel and leisure. The feisty and
flamboyant Sabharwal, who is set to announce a closing-down sale, with 50 to 90
per cent discount, has called out to booklovers for a final “celebration over a
cup of coffee and brownie, juice, nimboo paani, beer and snacks”.
What prompted you to close down?
I deal in expensive coffee-table books. Since
there are no footfalls, nobody comes to look at the stunningly beautiful
pictures in those books. We tried selling online but didn’t get orders. These
books need to be touched and seen. Things have been going down for the past
five years and we realised there was no way out.
Books at Timeless were famously expensive.
I distribute all international publishers as
well as publish myself under Timeless Books. These are high-quality books which
are collectors’ items. There was a standing joke in the industry that if Raavi
does something, it has to be expensive. If the maximum price in the market was
Rs 3,600, I would be selling books worth Rs 25,000 but these would be one
thousand times better in quality. I don’t believe in cutting corners in books.
So many books have become rare books now.
What are the titles you are particularly
proud of?
The first book I published was called Curry
and Rice on 40 Plates, about British social life in 19th century India. We have
done 12-15 Raghu Rai books. Panorama of India had works of a Czech photographer
and was priced at Rs 30,000.
Timeless was never only a bookstore, thanks
to its décor. How did you design the shop?
From my childhood, I liked beautiful things
even if it was a flower or a bird or a butterfly. I have a designer’s mind. I
watched the film Falling in Love, in which Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep meet
and fall in love in a bookstore called Rizzoli Bookstore. I went all the way to
New York and to Rizzoli with my camera to see the bookstore. When I came back,
I realised that my space was only a tenth of Rizzoli’s so I took a few months
to fit the concept in the small area and created the décor. A few years later,
a couple came in and said, ‘This place reminds us of a shop we have in New York
called Rizzoli Bookstore but your workmanship is better’.
Why do you have a motorbike and a bed in a
bookshop?
They became very popular with young people, I
don’t know why. When people came into the store, within 10 minutes, they would
be disconnected from the outside world.
Timeless Art Book Studio is at 1882 Jagram
Mandir Lane, (Next to H 58-59 South Extension 1). Phone: 46056198
Source | Indian Express | 8 September 2015
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