Srinagar, Publish Date: Jan 16 2018
Limca Book of Records has included Gulshan Books Kashmir, a publishing house at Nehru Park, having collection of over 80,000 books, in its 2018 edition.
“I feel proud about the achievement,” said Sheikh Ajaz Ahmad, owner and CEO of Gulshan Books House.
Gulshan Books is a division of Sheikh Muhammad Usman and Sons. “Given commitment and resolve to make a mark in the book industry especially after the devastating 2014 floods, I would say this was long overdue,” Ahmad 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 represents the fifth generation in the book business believes the book-reading in Kashmir is steadily picking up, envisaging thus a great prospect for the business here.
