Bangalore Book Centre

You’ll find us on Ranganath Temple Street in Chickpet, at number 4. If you know Chickpet, you know how narrow and crowded the lanes can be. It’s always a scramble with the handcarts and the shoppers pushing past each other. Our shop has been here for a long time, tucked away among all the saree shops and wholesalers. It’s a small place, and the shelves go all the way up to the ceiling, so we have to use a rickety old ladder to reach the top rows. It’s mostly books for students and some general reading material. The floor is old stone and it’s seen a lot of feet over the years. We don't have air conditioning, so we keep the ceiling fans going full speed all day. It gets a bit loud with the noise from the temple nearby and the street vendors, but we’re used to it by now. My father started this place, and I’ve been here since I was a kid. Not much has changed inside. We still use a simple cash box and write out receipts by hand. It’s just the way we do things. People come in from all over the city because they know we usually have those hard-to-find textbooks. It’s a busy life, and there isn’t much room to move around, but it’s our home and we've been comfortable here for a very long time now.