There is a buzz around a sightly built man on a motorcycle at the State Armed Police (SAP) campus at Peroorkada in Thiruvananthapuram. Conversations are animated and after an hour or two, each of the policemen leaves with a pile of books in hand while the vendor of stories travels to his next destination.
Jayakumar SS, a retired policeman, recounts that he met Dileep S in 1998 when he was a police constable at the SAP camp. “Dileep used to come on foot with a collection of the latest books. For more than 23 years, he has been selling books of all genres on our campus. By now, he knows the preferences of each of his customers and we have come to rely on his recommendations.”
For 42-year-old Dileep, son of a rubber tapper from Kuttichal, 28 km from Thiruvananthapuram, selling books is a vocation and an extension of his love for reading and books. “Vidhyadharan Vasudevan, an uncle of mine, was an avid reader. He influenced me to take up reading. I followed in the footsteps of a friend and took up selling books at the age of 19 to help my family meet ends. Although he stopped, I continued with my sales,” he says.
