Madhav Laxman Gadgil started Popular Book Shop in a small shop outside Poona Coffee House , Deccan Gymkhana on 10th Oct 1954. When the disastrous Panshet floods devastated Pune on 12 July 1961, like many businesses at that time, our tiny shop was washed away, resulting in a complete loss. Nilubhau Limaye, Mayor, Corporator & a close friend of Mr. Gadgil ran a restaurant named 'Poonam' on Fergusson
College Road. He was also hit by the floods and chose to shift his restaurant to Jangli Maharaj Road. He offered his place to Mr. Thus the Popular Book House of today came into existence with its much larger space and easily accessible and highly visible location. Gadgil named the new store as Popular Library & Book House and ran a library as well as a bookshop. The next few years saw a re-emergence of the business and Popular really became popular amongst Puneites. Our loyal customer base has continuously grown since then with 3rd and 4th generation patrons visiting us. It still has the ambiance of the local neighborhood store and patrons fondly reminisce over the days when they visited us with their parents. As with anything life goes on … and while newer patrons keep increasing our extended family, once in a way we are saddened when we hear about older patrons passing away. In 1973, Popular Library got a new place in the Annex and Popular Library & Book House was re-named Popular Book House (PBH). I, Sunil Gadgil, joined my father in business in 1976 as a part time apprentice transitioning to full time involvement after my graduation. Both of us, one with experience & the other with new ideas made it grow. PBH, has many first’s to its credit. First air-conditioned, fully carpeted shop, first shop to make use of computers, first shop to start a section on computer sciences, first shop to launch an online book shop … just to name a few. Today we stock the latest new books in English, Marathi & Hindi and a huge collection of CDs, VCDs, DVDs, MP3s of Marathi-Hindi films, plays, songs, & CDs on Education. We sell Indian magazines and accept subscriptions to international magazines like the world famous “National Geographic” magazine. At present we have 75 subscribers & the number is growing. We cater to various institutional & corporate libraries, Universities and Colleges. Symbiosis, Sinhagad colleges, M.M Colleges of Commerce & Architecture, B.M.C.C., INS Shivaji College of Engineering, Praj, Otis, Pune University, Jayakar Library are among the list of our satisfied patrons. Strictly following the “Customer First” principle for all these years we have always tried our level best to satisfy our customers. As an example, we go above and beyond the call of duty to locate & get books which are not readily available with us or in the market for our customers. We are happy to get in touch with you all through this column on Face book and will keep you informed about the new arrivals, happenings, sales promotions, meet the author events etc. We also welcome your suggestions – so please do write to us. Assuring you our best service & attention……ever. Sunil Gadgil
Owner
Popular book House
