diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0e442da..27e0b18 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,2 @@
-MySQL-python>=1.2.4
 tornado>=3.1.1
-dataset>=0.3.14
-torndb>=0.1
 jsonschema>=2.3.0
diff --git a/tornado_json/db.py b/tornado_json/db.py
index 5cd4ad8..49c8aef 100644
--- a/tornado_json/db.py
+++ b/tornado_json/db.py
@@ -1,5 +1,14 @@
-import torndb
-import dataset
+try:
+    import torndb
+    import dataset
+except ImportError as e:
+    print (
+        "Install `torndb` and `dataset` packages from pip to use the"
+        " tornado_json.db module. These modules are not listed as dependencies"
+        " during installation as this module is considered non-essential to"
+        " Tornado-JSON as a whole."
+    )
+    raise e
 
 
 class MySQLConnection(object):