Connection booked..

Over a period of time, booklovers generally develop a strong connection with one particular bookshop. This is hard to define. I can get the same book from a roadside vendor at a much cheaper rate or from any other bookshop but I would still insist on purchasing the book from one particular bookshop.


Being a voracious reader, I have scoured the bookshops in the capital and have purchased books from almost everywhere, from roadside vendors to second-hand books from Connaught Place to big shops like Om Book, Crossword, Oxford and so on. This is similar to affinity most women would feel for a particular market or shop.

However, if I have to name one shop from where I just love to buy or browse books, then it has to be Bahri Sons Book Shop in Khan Market. It is not as big as some of the other stores like Om Book in Saket or Oxford in Connaught Place. In comparison, Bahri Sons is quiet a small shop with hardly any sitting space and the shelves are so close to each other that you might feel they are going to fall on you. The shop also doesn’t offer coffee experience like other shops do, like Chabar at Oxford in Connaught Place.

The appeal of Bahri Sons lies in that it is not just a bookshop, it is more of a culture hotspot. It is frequented by authors and theatre persons and on more than one occasion I have bumped into well known authors. William Dalrymple is a regular here. Besides, it is not just books, am yet to come across any bookshop in Delhi having this vast collection of magazines from across the world. This is because the shop is frequented by expats. The only competitor I can think of is a prominent bookshop on MG Road in Bangalore (cannot recall the name now).

The shop is frequented by a number of my journalist friends and a chance meeting here is generally followed by a session at CCD or Barista. In the end, it is not about the books, but the entire experience which makes a person frequent one particular shop again and again and again...