#1 Bookstores:
Church Street, Bengaluru boasts of vibrant night life and brilliant street walks. But it is also famed for the quaint bookstores –Bookworm, Blossom Book House and more!
There are marked and determined footfall in these book stores, especially on weekends. The crowd outside on the Church Street is a gauging factor to the crowd inside the bookstores and it is in direct proportion! But what strikes me most is the contrasting nature of its milieu.
I recently visited the bookstores, during a peak hour over the weekend. As I entered into these book stores, I closed my eyes to take a whiff of the smell of paper, it envelops you from all sides. You need to open your eyes quickly lest you stumble onto a fellow reader putting all his/her attention into a book. But surprisingly I have never seen this happen.
As I walk through the aisle, my eyes are peeled to the shelves and in a slow pace, I catch their titles and pause occasionally in case of a distinctive book cover. I can feel another book lover standing in the middle of the aisle browsing through but as I inch closer, we both slowly give space to one another. It is almost involuntary and quietly, I have never had to break away from looking at
books or even say an “excuse me”. When I am exploring the pages of a book, I sometimes hear a voice “Have you tried this book?” and before I decide if I should reply, an answer comes from a different aisle, “Not that one, but I have read the author’s different works”. Zac O Yeah mentions other hilarious conversations he overhead in the same bookstores in his book “Digesting India” and I am proud to have my share of “sorry! couldn’t help overhearing” conversations in these
aisles.
In tight corners, people sit with a book and peruse its pages, with people and time passing by. I have sat cross-legged on the floor and tried to find Sonnets of Shakespeare buried under the multitude of books released ever after, I guess.
I love how these book stores are a world to escape into and wander around! We always emerge back with our very own treasure troves which we can take back home to explore at leisure. But we are back the next weekend to continue the hunt. An avid reader is ever insatiable!
Illustrated by Dileep M