India’s Largest Crossword Bookstore in Pune Shuts Down, Leaving Book Lovers Heartbroken
India’s Largest Crossword Bookstore in Pune Shuts Down, Leaving Book Lovers Heartbroken
Pune’s iconic Crossword bookstore on ITI Road, Aundh, has shut down, leaving bibliophiles heartbroken. Once India’s largest Crossword outlet, the three-storey bookstore was a haven for book lovers. It hosted book launches by famous authors like Jeffrey Archer, Ruskin Bond, Durjoy Dutta, and Twinkle Khanna.
Viraj Kulkarni, an X (formerly Twitter) user, shared a video of the store’s sign being taken down.
See the video:
The first word my daughter learned to speak was ‘book’. With wide eyes, she would point at a book and say ‘boo’ in a voice full of glee. We began taking her to a nearby Crossword bookshop (in Aundh, Pune) when she could barely walk. Our trips soon became a cherished… pic.twitter.com/qLWcDIINIJ
— Viraj Kulkarni (@VirajZero) January 27, 2025
He posted an emotional note about his memories with his daughter at the bookstore. “The first word my daughter learned to speak was ‘book’. With wide eyes, she would point at a book and say ‘boo’ in a voice full of glee. We began taking her to a nearby Crossword bookshop (in Aundh, Pune) when she could barely walk. Our trips soon became a cherished daddy-daughter tradition, where we would visit once every month and buy three books for her. She chose two and I chose one,” he wrote.
When they visited the store recently, they found it shut. Watching the sign being removed felt like ‘a physical sensation of pain,’ the user wrote. “His daughter had tears in her eyes. Yesterday, we went there to find the doors shut. A man on a ladder was ripping out the Crossword sign. Slowly. Methodically. As he pulled out one letter after another, I felt a physical sensation of pain. My daughter had tears in her eyes. A glowing light somewhere was snuffed out, and the world became slightly darker. And some of my faith in humanity died forever!” he wrote.
He lamented the decline of reading habits, saying, “A society that does not read is a society that does not know itself. We used to turn pages and paint stories with our imagination. Now we endlessly stab screens till our thumbs hurt, our minds numbed by the dopamine drip of likes and reels. We have become slaves to our devices, consuming whatever they decide for us, our thoughts hijacked by algorithms, our souls starved for meaning.”
He wrote, “If you want your children to read, don’t tell them. Show them. Children hate listening to adults, but they love imitating them. Pick up a book yourself, and they will do the same!”
Many users reacted to the closure, recalling fond memories. One noted that while the Crossword brand is being revived by new Pune-based owners, changing economics and declining readership have forced a rethink on real estate costs.
Despite the closure, book lovers hope that smaller stores will continue to keep the reading culture alive.
