Bhowanipore’s loss is Salt Lake’s gain. The 15,000sq ft bookstore, Story, that was a haunt of bibliophiles ever since it opened doors in 2004 had downed shutters at its Elgin Road address in January. On August 8, it opened in a new and more compact avatar at Primarc Square, on the main road in KB Block, opposite to the Salt Lake stadium.
Calcutta mayor and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim came to do the honours along with filmmaker Arindam Sil. “I had queued up at 4am to buy Harry Potter on the day of the book’s launch at my youngest daughter’s insistence. Watching video does not allow the imagination to take flight as reading a book does,” he said.
In a city which is seeing the birth of small cafes almost on a daily basis, the opening of a bookstore was a rare occurance, Sil said, lauding the management for the “bold decision”.
“Our realty office was shifting to Salt Lake, so it made sense to shift the bookstore to the same building,” said Sidharth Pansari, managing director of Primarc Properties, who had opened the store in his youth. “With books being sold online, a store need not keep a huge physical stock. Rather it needs to be a carefully curated collection.”
Changing trends
His experience of the last few years of the Elgin Road store showed that even if he kept 500 titles on the racks, about 50 sold regularly. “So let people buy the other 450 online if they need and let me keep the 50 that really sell at the store.”
Other changes too have taken place. “The Google search has replaced the entire reference book catalogue. So many houses used to keep a full set of Encycloepedia Britannica. The same has happened to travel guide books and cookbooks. At one point when we had started, Tarla Dalal and Nita Mehta were a rage. We used to sell 1,000 cookbooks per month. Now why should people buy books when you have a hundred YouTube channels teaching you how to cook or websites telling you about the tourist spots to visit in a city?” Sidharth says.
Another section that Crossword was known for was its collection of DVDs and CDs. “That too was diminished towards the end of the Elgin Road years.” The current store does not keep discs, audio or video.
“Earlier we had too much toys and stationery. Now we are keeping things to do with the habit of reading,” Sidharth said. A hobby section is there, that includes drawing kit and calligraphy pens. There are boardgames but no toys.
The children’s section with mini seats. Sudeshna Banerjee
The most striking visual feature of the 4,000sq ft store, housed on the ground floor, is the impression of height on entry. All along the walls up till a height of 20ft there is an unimpeded vision of racks full of books. “We wanted to create a European library kind of look,” says Sidharth’s wife business director Shambhavi Pansari, who runs the bookstore.
The higher racks can be reached by climbing flights of metal stairs which rise against the wall on the far side, creating a zigzag look. The reflections on the acrylic roof and mirrors installed facing the stairs create an impression of infinite volume of the collection. There is a wedge that juts out all along the four walls, allowing visitors to walk around sampling the titles at that height. At spaces it gets wider, thanks to hanging additions to the platform. A couple of chairs with a table have been added in each of those spaces to allow visitors to browse in comfort. The books are kept all face-up, unlike at the earlier store. “That may take up more space but gives better display,” Sidharth said.
Chapters in focus
“We are specialising in children’s books and non-fiction,” said Shambhavi. “Among children’s titles, touchand-feel activity books that parents can do along with the children are doing well, alongside colouring books. The second level is dedicated to children.” There is a small section on Bengali and Hindi titles too.
At the ground level, there is a range of books which is popular as gifts, called vision books. “These ‘mindfulness’ or ‘happiness journals’ are not empty pages to write a personal diary on but make one ponder by having questions printed on each page like ‘what gives you pleasure?’ or ‘what are your strengths?’”. To complete the purchase, right opposite the rack with the books is a counter selling pens.
There is no elaborate cafe as the owners believe the focus should be on books and not conversation. But one can pay a token amount at the self-service counter and pick up a steaming cuppa while browsing.
Sidharth has high hopes of Salt Lake as a catchment area. “This is a Bengali educated neighbourhood which reads books. And I expect people from even south Calcutta will drop in,” he said.
There is a small activity space at the second level where story-telling sessions will be planned. For bigger gatherings, there is an auditorium on a higher floor of the building too, the Pansaris say.
Write to saltlake@abp.in