Mirza Yaseen Baig, proprietor of Midland Guide Store, one of many Delhi’s hottest, passes away at 94

Within the Seventies, when the Telangana Motion in Andhra Pradesh started affecting commerce within the metropolis, the Baigs, who ran a bookselling enterprise in Hyderabad’s Sultan Bazar, determined to shift to Delhi. Over time, the New Guide Land, a kiosk in Connaught Place set amid the hubbub of the Janpath flea market and at a stone’s throw from Depaul’s, grew to become the primary cease for Mirza Yaseen Baig in 1978, who would cycle throughout town, increase a clientele for his books. By the point he launched Midland in Aurobindo Market in 1985, he already had a loyal consumer base in place. Since then, the Baigs have added two different shops to their family-run enterprise, one in South Extension Half I and the opposite in Gurugram, every with a cult following of its personal.

From ministers to authors and publishers to cash-strapped faculty college students, academics and fogeys eager to introduce their toddlers to studying, Midland grew to become a pit-stop for e-book lovers throughout ages, partly owing to Mirza Baig’s entrepreneurial foresight. Lengthy earlier than the onslaught of on-line e-book behemoths providing heavy reductions, Baig started promoting books at a reduced fee of 20 per cent to his prospects, increase a conducive atmosphere for readership. He backed younger authors, giving them distinguished show in his shops and went out of his option to counsel books to every reader who walked into his retailer, a trait continued by his sons and grandsons, who now run the household enterprise. As information of the patriarch’s dying broke, writers and long-time patrons took to social media to pay him tribute. Meals historian Pushpesh Pant tweeted, “Deeply saddened by (the) passing (of) Dada Sahib Beg (sic)… He lavished affection on me and kindly allowed me to purchase costly books on credit score in early Seventies. Teenagers to 70s bond continued. For me that is an finish of an period…” “…A sort and delicate soul, he backed my books when few others did. I’ll at all times be thankful for his help once I wanted it most…” tweeted author Amish Tripathi.

Regardless of his superior age, until earlier than the pandemic, Mirza Baig was an everyday on the Aurobindo Place outlet. When interacting with prospects grew to become restricted due to listening to difficulties, he would sit outdoors in a chair, flanked by rows of books, watching individuals savour his labour of affection. “As I recall Mirza Yaseen Baig’s mild smile as he sat within the courtyard outdoors his bookstore, watching the world go by, I’m overcome by nostalgia and remembrance. I knew Midland from the early days in Janpath. Then, within the Eighties, greater than 1 / 4 century in the past, I started frequenting Midland in Aurobindo Place. Mirza Yaseen Baig had an intuitive and instinctual understanding of each books and readers. He may information his prospects to the precise e-book they have been looking for. It wasn’t a sterile atmosphere — readers have been inspired to browse, and the scent of paper and books and the heat and unassuming scholarship he handed on to his kids and grandchildren make Midland the good establishment that it’s,” recounts author Namita Gokhale, a long-time patron of the e-book store.