Meet me at Wheeler's," is a favourite refrain among Mumbai's sea of commuters. On bustling platforms, these book stalls are familiar landmarks in the city - taken so much for granted that no one questions its origins.But the company, whose name is familiar to travellers throughout Mumbai and India, ironically takes its name from a man who perhaps never even visited India. Arthur Henry Wheeler was a household name in England, whose city book stores were as familiar to Victorian London as our railway book-stalls are today. When his colleague, a French entrepreneur named Morreau, secured a contract with the Government of India in 1879 to purvey books to travellers at the growing railway network of British India, A H Wheeler allowed his name to be used on the stalls. The company was thus established in Allahabad, where Wheeler's name continues in prominence long after it has passed from the popular memory of England.With the rapid growth of the railways, A H Wheeler & Co had established a name and reputation throughout British India, and became known as the `sole authority in Asia' for books and related periodicals. In 1937, as freedom was slowly dawning on the country, ownership of the company was transferred to T K Banerjee, a prominent citizen of colonial Allahabad and a personal friend of Morreau. Wheeler's contract with Indian Railways continued through Partition and remains to this day, and it now serves eight out of the nine railways in India (the book-stalls of Southern Railway are stocked by Higginbotham's of Madras).In the early 1970s it launched a publishing division, and the company currently maintains offices in all the metros and smaller cities. Ranjit Banerjee, assistant manager of Wheeler Publishing in Mumbai, and grandson of the late T K Banerjee, says Poona and Bangalore are among Wheeler's fastest-growing branches, while Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta remain robust (the latter being a traditionally strong branch given the literary proclivities of most Bengalis, he say). Wheeler Publishing has in the past several years opened a new head office at Darya Ganj in New Delhi, the centre of the Indian publishing industry. It annually participates in the Calcutta Book Fair and the World Book Fair in New Delhi, and sends a representative to the world-renowned Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. Despite such growth and expansion, Wheeler's remains a family firm. Its president, Alok, its head of publications, Arunjeet, and the head of book-stalls, Amit, are all Allahabadi Banerjees.Despite a fire in 1994 at its godown on D N Road in Fort which destroyed much of its stock, its Mumbai office continues to operate from a temporary location at Dadar West, until the office is rebuilt. Wheeler Publishing, originally distributing for Pittman, now stocks books from McGraw-Hill and Tata McGraw-Hill, Galgotia, Narosia, D B Tarapore and BPB, among others. The Mumbai branch is one of the country's largest, supplying books to colleges and other institutions in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.The monsoon season is Wheeler Publishing's busiest season. Its publications range from subjects such as engineering, computer science and information technology to the social sciences, humanities and instructional manuals for typewriting, shorthand and the English language. Its marketing activities consist of visits by its representatives to libraries and educational institutions, and mass-mailing from its office in New Delhi.However, the highest-profile aspect of A H Wheeler & Co remains its railway book stalls. They serve a total of 268 stations in India, with between 500 to 600 stalls. Their salesmen are recruited from hawkers and sundry street merchants by a network of agents that answer to Wheeler's regional offices, says A K Sarkar, the head of the book-stalls division of the Mumbai office. Over 5,000 employees staff the stalls, providing everything from religious books to pot-boiler novels to city commuters and long-distance travellers. But most of all, Wheeler's gives the city a place to meet, talk and ease the long ride home.
