Balraj Bahri Malhotra was a simple but principled man. Having struggled for much of his early years, his life can be seen as a model of ad...
Balraj Bahri Malhotra was a simple but principled man. Having struggled for much of his early years, his life can be seen as a model of adaptability and resilience. Displaced from their hometown of Malakwal in West Punjab due to the Partition of India in 1947, his family travelled to Delhi with little means or security.
But in a matter of six years, by sheer determination and drive, he managed to set up a small bookshop called Bahrisons in Khan Market in 1953, and was thereafter lovingly called Bahri sahib. Between the two of us, Anuj began working there after high school, and Rajni joined eighteen years ago. In that sense, Bahrisons has always been a family-run shop.
The six foundational years from 1947-1953 were not easy, but they paved the way for how the shop would operate for decades to come. A new vocation had to be learnt, a business had to be raised from the ground up, a family had to be supported, and a future had to be forged. But never bowing in the face of adversity, Bahri sahib accepted that change was inevitable, and the only path to success was to find a way to adapt to that change.
When the lockdown was...
