It’s an icing on the cake, says CEO
Srinagar: Gulshan Books Kashmir, the only publishing house boasting a collection of well over 80,000 books at its Nehru Park outlet has prompted the Limca Book of Records to include its name in its 2018 edition.
“Given the commitment and the resolve to make a mark in the book industry especially after the devastating 2014 floods, I’d say this was long overdue,” Sheikh Ajaz Ahmad, CEO Gulshan Books said.
“In a place where the book-reading habits are slowly picking up, staying afloat is pretty encouraging.”
Under the title, “Only Bookshop-Library On A Lake”, the Limca Book writes: Gulshan Books, a bookshop set up in May 2016, has a reading room, a cafe, and over 80,000 books. This bookshop-cum-library, on the Nehru Park Island of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, can be reached by a shikara ride. The owner, Sheikh Ajaz Ahmad (46), willingly offers free shikara rides to everyone keen to read books on Kashmir and its literature.”
The Limca mention, Ahmad says, is an icing on the cake.
Ahmad who is the fifth generation of his family in the book business believes that book-reading in Kashmir is steadily picking up, envisaging thus a great prospect for the business here.
Gulshan Books is a division of Sheikh Mohammad Usman & Sons. This has been for the first time that a bookstore in India has been included in the Limca Book of Records.
(With inputs from KNS)
