Serendipity on a Highway

A roadside tent of hooks on Imphal’s NH-37 becomes a space of wonder, nostalgia and healing—reminding us how the unexpected can return us to what we cherish

- SIDDHARTH DEV VERMAN

“Tlove walking into a bookstore. It like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me”

Tahereh Mafi

Serendipity is the act of discovering something good purely by accident. It could be an old five-hundred-rupee note in the pocket of a freshly washed shirt or an unexpected new discovery while searching for something else. Either way, such discoveries more often than not are happy happenings, as human memory is notorious for misplacing and/or ignoring what we hold dear, even when they are always somewhere nearby!

I have been trying out different ways of shedding weight in recent years. After a failed tryst with the gym, where one had to lift weights to lose weight and also risk sudden cardiac arrest on the treadmill, I took to walking—a harmless pastime without any nasty surprises. And it was during one such recent expedition, as I walked down the path next to the busy National Highway 37, which weaves through Imphal, that I made a serendipitous discovery which reunited me with my first love—books.

A tent with temporary tin roofs had been set up on the roadside, under which a dozen or so wooden tables were laid out. As far as I could see, there were books—some neatly stacked, others jostling for space, cover to cover. I had stumbled upon, in the middle of Imphal city and on the side of one of its busiest roads, a wandering book fair!

‘There was no entrance gate or security guards with bomb detectors. It was like a street food stall selling books instead of food. In fact, just across the highway was Imphal’s famous and popular street food market. For foodies and bookworms, the coincidence of these two coexisting close to each other, however temporarily, was a double delight.