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Books with a flavour
U.R. Ananthamurthy at the opening of a new bookshop.
IS THERE something about the smell of coffee that inspires you to read? A holiday, after all, doesn't feel like a holiday until you hold a book in one hand and a steaming mug of coffee in the other. A little flashback to history will tell you that coffee houses were places of great intellectual fervour in 17th Century England.
One may not quite associate intellectual fervour with a Barista outlet. But the magical link between coffee and books is still strong and makes a lot of business sense too, believes Aalok Wadhwa, the Chief Executive Officer of The Corner Bookstore chain. So, the company's first outlet in Bangalore is attached to Barista on St. Mark's Road. It is, literally, at one tiny corner of the HMV Heritage Building, rubbing shoulders with the Lacoste outlet.
The store was inaugurated today by Jnanapith Award-winning Kannada writer, U.R. Ananthamurthy. Looking exhausted, he cut the tape and took a stroll around the shop, looking through the small but eclectic collection of books — ranging from Noam Chomsky's For Reasons of State and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's autobiography to Vasu Nivas and There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. He was particularly pleased with the classics section, which featured some of his favourites including Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Two of his own books in English translation — Bhava, the novel, and Stallion of the Sun, a collection of short stories — were on display too. Mr. Ananthamurthy, who seemed a wee bit surprised by their presence in the shop, autographed the copies.
One of the most articulate people around, he was surprisingly quiet.
By Bageshree S.
Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
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