Book World

Down in the basement of Sagar Arcade is where you’ll find us. It’s Shop Number 1 and 11, right on Fergusson College Road. Being in a basement means it stays a little cooler than the street outside, which is nice when the sun is really beating down on Pune. We’ve got books everywhere. They’re on the shelves, stacked on the tables, and sometimes we have to move a pile just so someone can walk past. It’s not the most modern looking place, but it works for us. Students from the college come in all the time looking for textbooks or just something to read between classes. Plot No-616 is a busy spot, so there’s always noise from the traffic upstairs. We spend a lot of time sorting through boxes that come in from the publishers. Sometimes the lights flicker a bit, but we’ve got enough lamps around. People seem to like the smell of old paper and ink that hangs around the shop. We don't really do much advertising; folks just find us by walking down the stairs from the main road. It can get a bit cramped when five or six people are looking at the same shelf, but everyone is usually polite about it. We’ve been here long enough that we know where most of the titles are without having to look at a computer. It's just a regular book shop for regular readers who don't mind getting a bit of dust on their hands.