Traditional New Year buys like diaries and calendars are being elbowed out by books on horoscope in the township. 

“We do not stock calendars at all and diaries are popular mainly as corporate gifts. What individuals are increasingly turning to is horoscope books by the zodiac,” says manager of Crossword, City Centre, Soubhagya Pal. The store has already sold between 6,000 and 7,000 such books this winter. 

While the spokesperson for Starmark would not divulge sales figures, he admitted that sales of such books had doubled since their outlet opened in City Centre about a decade ago. “They do brisk business between December and February with sales peaking in the last week of December,” he said.

Bookstores in Salt Lake and New Town stock only one or two titles of horoscope books, such as those by astrologer Bejan Daruwalla and Diamond Annual Horoscope. These books take the reader through the next 12 months, highlighting what they claim will be good times and cautioning them before trying times. 

It is the Daruwalla books that dominates sales. “Bejan Daruwalla is a massive brand and single-handedly drives sales in this category,” says Ravin S. Chadha, who only stocks Daruwalla’s horoscope books at his Book Cellar outlet in City Centre. 

Daruwalla has separate books for the 12 zodiacs, priced at Rs 75, as well as a Rs 399 12-in-1 complete pack of all zodiacs. The Starmark spokesperson says that for every complete pack that they sell, they sell five single zodiac books. But Book Cellar has a different story to tell. 

“The complete pack is our primary seller and we sell 10 to 15 of them a day. It is picked up by people who want to browse through not just their own zodiac but that of their entire family and friend circle’s,” says Chadha. “Horoscope books are an impulse purchase.”

Gift House, the CF Block store that opened in 1991, used to keep Daruwalla’s books till recently. “We would see maximum sales of Sagitarius, Capricorn and Aquarius zodiac books,” says owner Barindra Nath Sarkar. “That’s because people of these signs are born around the new year and anyone going to their birthday party would pick up a horoscope book to gift them.”

Sarkar says the books had a loyal middle-aged customer base and that some customers still ask for the books but he has stopped stocking them. “We would have to procure the books in sets of 12 and despite the sales, would be left with unsold stocks. It was an awkward situation since even loyal buyers would not buy a book of a zodiac other than their own.”

Amitesh Chowdhury, customer care executive of Crossword in City Centre 2, agrees that it is the middle-aged who form the biggest customer base of these books. “They say the books give them hope and confidence to face the new year.

While the bulk of sales is over by April, a person going through a rough patch will sometimes come and pick up a book as late as July if he thinks it’ll help him cope better in the remaining months of the year.”