I find Saturday evenings quite boring. Nothing to do as such except to go through same old magazines lying on table and looking out of window, I was wondering what makes Delhi an attractive destination for a bibliophile? I am no critic of places, but I do judge places based on the quality of book stalls near by areas you live in. It perhaps reflects the culture of the place.

I just returned from a near by magazine shop. I was going through few magazines on stall, but there's hardly anything new to read. Nothing interesting! Editors are buys in selling old stories with new cover pages and hiked prices. I often find it interesting to note range of topics, business magazines cover on weekly basis. Probably, doing some surveys & writing on cases studies of budding businessmen, they hardly make any new point. It is in general true for other magazines too. So in short my visit to nearby magazine shop yielded nothing, but a big disappointment.

So what's next? I have to travel some 7-8km to catch glimpse of new releases on book shelf. It's too far. I have to spend some decent amount of money on this long trip which makes it worthless. Strolling on empty roads in my locality, I really missed my home. At least I don't have to travel that far to find something interesting to read.

In South Delhi, you could hardly spot good book-shops. Except in South-Ex and Saket, I didn't notice anything worthwhile. With population of 2Cr and mushrooming shopping malls, void of book-shops, I often wonder where the book readers have gone missing in one of the oldest cities of India. I could hardly spot book readers in buses, metros or even cars. And above all no one is really worried about their disappearance.

I enjoy reading a lot. Perhaps, it is something I am tied down to despite my reckless schedules. It comes from deep commiment made to something I am passionate about. Traveling across Delhi on daily basis, gives me ample amount of time to read not at home but during travel. I really enjoy it the most. I read whatever comes in my way, a short story of Ruskin Bond or latest Forbes interview of Sunil Mittal; I read anything which is worthwhile to know. And many times I spend my Sundays at Daryaganj, which is perhaps the best place to visit in Delhi; of course for a book-lover.

Perhaps, Delhi has no reading culture. If you count number of book-shops (Please don't count those which sell school & college books etc) to population ratio of Delhi, it would turn out to be one of the most disappointing numbers to know. It wouldn’t be alarming for some, but yes unless we are aware of it, how are we going to take care of it? Are we really aware of it? What are your reading habits? What's your favorite past time? Are we teaching our children about reading good books? When was the last time you spent reading something you liked? Come on Delhi book lovers, I am really missing you out here.