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The warm and greeting smile of Anup Bahmi can no longer be found at his Faqir Chand Book Store in Khan Market. A lawyer, book shop owner and iconic figure, he passed away on January 11, 2026, due to a heart attack.
Born in 1962 and raised in Nainital, Anup Bahmi was fond of long conversations with customers about the place. Though a lawyer by profession, he was best known as the friendly book owner, sporting his flat cap hat and the classical Indian mustache.
Faqir Chand Book Store endured the turbulent rides of Khan Market despite rising rents and competition from online retailers. With strong social media popularity and nostalgic appeal, it continues to draw young readers and loyal customers alike.
The warm and greeting smile of Anup Bahmi can no longer be found at his Faqir Chand Book Store in Khan Market. A lawyer, a book shop owner and an iconic figure of Khan Market, Anup Bahmi passed away on Sunday, January 11, 2026, due to a heart attack. Bahmi was known for his benevolent presence at the book store and as an important member of the multi-generational family business, loved by book enthusiasts and shoppers.
Anup Bahmi was born on May 20, 1962, and grew up in Nainital, Uttarakhand. He was cheerfully fond of the place, often interacting in long conversations with customers, who asked him about Nainital. Anup attended St Joseph’s College in Uttarakhand, graduating with a degree in law. Although a lawyer by profession, he was famously known as the nice book owner sitting behind the desk, wearing his trademark flat cap hat, and sporting a large classical Indian mustache.
Anup Bahmi was present at several book signing events, with eminent dignitaries, such as former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. In October 2025, DY Chandrachud visited the Faqir Chand book store and held a conversation and a signing event for his book “Why The Constitution Matters”. Anup Bahmi can be seen smiling in a picture alongside him, engaging in heartwarming conversations with people nearby.
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Faqir Chand book store is an eminent and widely popular book store in the hustling and bustling streets of Khan Market, New Delhi. The founder, Faqir Chand, started his journey as a book shop owner pre-partition, in 1931, in Pakistan’s Peshawar. Following the partition in 1947, he moved along with his family to Delhi and opened a book store in Khan Market, known as the Oriental Book Shop. The book shop adopted its iconic name in 1951.
The ownership of the shop continued to be in the family, with Faqir Chand’s wife Uma and granddaughter Mamta taking over the reins of the business after Chand’s demise. Mamta married Anup Bahmi in 1992, and the two could almost always be seen together in the bookstore, interacting with the customers. Today, the book shop features Anup’s wife Mamta, his daughter Aradhana, and son Abhinav behind the counter and around the store. Abhinav contributed in popularising the book store using social media, attracting younger generations to visit the store and shop around.
Khan Market used to host a number of book stores in its initial days, but with rent skyrocketing, and the new upscale professional turnover of the market, several book stores lost their place, and moved to other locations. Faqir Chand Book Store, however, endured the turbulent rides of the market, and continues to flourish in the Khan Market, owing to its high social media popularity where hundreds of youth not only come to browse around and purchase books, but click pictures too, at the iconic doorstep. Bahrisons Bookshop is another such bookstore that enjoys a great customer base.
With multiple international and national publications, such as Crossword and Oxford Bookshop, opening up stores along with portals for online retail, and a huge market for online book stores, indigenous book stores are fighting to find their place. Many readers bid their goodbyes to several popular old school book stores, such as Basant Lok’s Fact & Fiction Booksellers, The Bookworm in Connaught Place (CP) and Yodakin in Hauz Khas Village, among others.
However, book stores like Faqir Chand and Bahrisons continue to draw in customers owing to their nostalgic feel – browsing around in bookstores, feeling the old paper touch of the hard cover books, and providing certain new financial incentives to offer affordability. Nostalgia, however, continues to act as one of the most important factors for popularity, as it gives the old school Indian ambience of being surrounded with literature, quotes from writers and letters of appreciation, along with the owner’s friendly hospitality.
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