NON-FICTION
Ode to an Antique Bookshop
Where Space And Time Stands Still
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It is not always that you come across something(s) that’s somewhat lost in the beds of time, seeped in a sepia tinge of ancient colours. But, if you keep searching for everything vintage, old, or dilapidated, life will probably take you there.
Since moving to Bangalore, I have had the good fortune of meeting and conversing with a couple of old gentlemen from a completely different era than us. An Era which we can only dream of, or see in movies. And each of those conversations has been soul-satisfying.
This time around, being an ardent lover of old books and particularly, the smell of old books, I read an article on Google about this very old bookshop called Select Bookshop, and well, the very next weekend, there I was.
This unassuming 77-year-young bookshop is just off Bangalore’s hustle-bustle-infused Brigade road. You’d, in a few seconds, get transported completely from the buzz to a much slower, quieter time when life was not about social media and the busy life, but a lazy one by the window with a book in one hand, and perhaps a cup of tea in the other.
The books are stored across two storeys in this shop, the Ground floor catering to Fiction and poetry, while the first floor mostly has Politics, Non-fiction, History and rare old National Geographic Magazines.
Run by the father-son duo of KKS Murthy and K. Sanjay, the legendary store was founded by Murthy’s father KBK Rao in 1945.
The bookstore has been at its current location for just around 38 years. It started its operations from Museum Road for around seven years, then moved to an Anglo-Indian-owned property near MG Road, where it stayed for the longest period. Unfortunately, that building was getting demolished in the early 1980s, and they had to relocate again, to Malleswaram, although temporarily. Finally, they found this place, and have been here since.
As I was talking to K. Sanjay about the place, I saw a gentleman, mostly in his 90s, arriving in, with a smile and an eye full of curiosity. It was Mr Murthy, who’s the Nucleus perhaps, holding this gem of a place together, and that sole link between our world and his. He took a seat in his chair that seemed to be the same age as him, and looked around the place, glancing at it meticulously for a long time. It is his child, and he loves the place from the core of his heart.
It was Mr Sanjay’s grandfather and Mr Murthy’s father, KBK Rao, who started this shop. When the Second World War was over, lots of foreigners who were settled in Bangalore decided to go back to Europe. And many of them had huge collections of rare books with them. A good number of books from their collection were supposedly left behind, and Mr Rao, being a lover of rare books, went ahead and got some of them through antique collectors and from several auctions. Now, as he kept collecting more and more books, this passion slowly turned into a business, when a British friend of Mr Rao, offered a space to store all of these rare books. And thereby, the journey commenced.
Mr Sanjay was speaking about a couple of very rare books that his father got, like Lewis Carroll’s “Adventures of Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, which had the author’s original autograph. Along with that, the 1898 edition of ‘The Seat of Authority in Religion’ by James Martineau, the original edition of Winston Churchill’s ‘Second World War,’ and countless other timeless classics.
The bookstore, within a very short time of its opening, gained a lot of reputation because of its collection, and a lot of well-known people and legends visited the place, including Nobel Prize winners CV Raman, Rabindranath Tagore, Ruskin Bond, and many others.
Even that day, when I was in the store, lots of young people came in with requests for old books, which was lovely to witness. The art and culture of Reading are still there, still blooming. It made me very happy. Along with the old books, the store has been selling new books as well, from both known and new authors in the city, which was again heartening to see.
Most of the time I was in the bookshop, I was astounded, in front of the shelves of old books, layers upon layers, imagining the countless hands they might have come through before resting here in this bookshop, in the monk-like presence of Mr Murthy. However, the rest might be temporary before another hand takes it away on a new journey, waiting to be unfolded. The ancient smell, coupled with imagining an era that is beyond me, and feeling nostalgic for a time I have never lived in, sent goosebumps, and I just stood there, lost in the magical charm of the yellowed, tattered pages, smiling to myself, soaking in every bit of energy that the moment allowed.
This bookshop is perhaps the last remaining fragments of memories, of a time when Bangalore was a garden city, charming, small, without all the hullabaloo around, that is so hard to imagine now.
As I left the place with a smiling Mr Murthy waving at me, asking me to come back again, I saw the peeled-out signboard of the bookshop, a reminder of an ageing cemetery of old books, trying hard to stay on, to float on, and continue the journey for a long, long time. Who knows what’ll happen, but until passionate people like Mr Murthy and Mr Sanjay are there, along with so many well-wishers, I am sure the shop will sail on into the flamboyant rays of the rising sun.
Postscript: I was keenly looking for a book that I could take home with me, and as if by some magic, my hands found this one, a poetry book, published in 1958 in Great Britain. Mr Sanjay said that this book has travelled a lot of places before reaching them. And that, they collected the book from the Bungalow of an old Anglo-Indian lady who was leaving India. Then I discovered this old, yellowed postage stamp addressed to Professor Ivor Lewis. It was surreal, to be honest. I wonder which all continents it traversed on throughout the last 70-odd years, and now it’s ready to travel with me for more, I hope. Looking forward to reading it.
Somsubhra Banerjee, 2023
