No rush for textbooks or rare books, yet Hyderabad’s Koti has its regulars in digital age

Published 25 June 2026 · local

There was a time when the beginning of an academic season brought parents and students to the series of bookstalls in Koti, Hyderabad. They used

There was a time when the beginning of an academic season brought parents and students to the series of bookstalls in Koti, Hyderabad. They used to wait for their turn for new textbooks, second-hand sets. The school season began this year. The books and sellers are there at the counter, but the crowd is thin. This has been so for over a decade now. Ranjeet Gunjote has run his bookstall here for as long as he can remember as his father owned the place before. In the past, people would come in with booklists, reading out titles while their children waited. Now, those lists rarely show up. Many schools tell parents to buy from a single store linked to a specific publisher, where they must purchase the full set. Ranjeet still has unsold books from previous school seasons on his shelves. “We were their go-to place,” he says. “Now we are their last choice.” Sold out by evening He remembers when things were different. Whether it was engineering, medicine, law, or other courses, students in Hyderabad came to Koti for what they needed. The lanes would get so crowded that people used to stand on the main road. Over time, authorities had to set aside space for the market. Books that arrived in the morning would be sold out by evening. Ranjeet is not the only one. Across Koti, footfall has dropped by nearly half of what it was a few years ago.

Mohd. Asif Ahmed has worked at Star Book Center for over twenty years. He started as a helper, then bought the shop, and paid for his own education by selling second-hand books. Some families who once relied on his shop still visit, but their children usually don’t come along. Now, people can order the same books online, often for less money and with faster delivery. Even when new curriculums make some books impossible to sell, Asif says he still loves his work and hopes students will someday find a balance between screens and printed pages. The regulars But some people still come. Some travel from villages, trusting the bookstore they know best. Long-time customers bring their children’s friends who are starting to prepare for exams, much like sharing a family recipe. For families without easy access to smartphones, Asif still helps them choose what to buy and tells them the right price, sometimes letting them pay in installments. Others come for a different reason: UPSC aspirants who avoid their phones, seeing screens as distractions. They don’t just buy books from him, they ask for advice on what to read and what to skip. For them, Asif is more than a shopkeeper; he’s part of their journey. Time, weight and commute It’s clear why students have changed their habits. Medical students, for instance, had to carry heavy books and equipment. Now they are inclined to carry the books in the form of PDFs in electronic devices instead.