A Bookworm's Trail on Church Street, Bangalore

           

            Church Street in Bangalore is one of the few colonial legacies being prolonged in the city. As the name itself suggests, the street has been famous right from the past colonial times. As the road which leads to the church, the street was named ‘Church Street’. But, at present, there seems to be a radical change on the street. It has been traditionally famous for the book lovers to spend time. But now, more interests have taken the position and very few book shops are left on the street to maintain the tradition. Thus, an evening walk searching for books (old ones, second hand also) would be a good attempt.

             The walk begins at the junction where St. Mark’s road meets Church street, which is just next to Hard Rock café. At that corner, where we begin, you could find K C Das, which is a sweets shop.

Just after K C Das you have Variety Book House. Here you nearly 7000 different magazines, from all around the world, including imports such as Wallpaper, Metal Hammer and Political Magazines which really do well at the store. You also find the recent best sellers and comics. Usually, the back issues  international magazines can be bought around Rs.100. New ones vary from Rs.600 – 3000/-. You can pay a visit to that place and see in which ways that bookshop can afford what you need.

           As you keep moving from that place, again on your left side you would be finding Goobe’s. It is a book shop and also a library. You can buy, sell and rent books there. You can join as a member in that place and borrow books for your reading. There are different packages for borrowing books, depending on the number of books you want during every visit. You can buy books (both new and second hand) for a lower price.

        When you keep on moving searching for books, there are also places where you can treat yourself, on the way. On your right side at the next junction you can find Hotel Empire. The hotel offers Mughlai, North Indian and South Indian dishes. Thali items, Empire special chicken dishes and North Indian Non-Veg Gravies are some of them to be named.

Soon after you move away from the hotel, on your left you can find ‘The Entertainment Store’. Here, at this place, you can go in search for your latest favourite movie DVDs and also your Games. Containing almost all the recent trendy things in it, including play station gadgets and demonstration this shop on Church Street may add spice to your walking trail on an evening.

A little bit further, you have a seven floors building. In that huge building, you would find Gangarams Book Shop in the second floor. It is another one of the book shops in Bangalore where you can find some good books, all throughout the year. You will find a special section under the name ‘Gangaram Picks’, an entire collection of fiction and non-fiction. They even provide facilities such as sourcing and delivering from any part of the world, the book you are searching for.

          Our next destination would be Blossoms Book shop. For that, you need to walk a little more down the road. Before reaching that book shop you also have a small Tattoo stall. Bramha Tattoo Studio, you can pay visit and if you wish, you also can get one done for yourself.

           At Blossoms, there are book divided into special categories, which will make your search easy. There are sections such as Rare Books, which contain books such as The One Straw Revolution, The Big Fat Bunter Book ad others. There are also shelves labelled ‘Top New Releases’, ‘ Blossom All Time Best Sellers’, ‘Blossom Recommends’ and ‘Children’s Collection.

          You will find many other restaurants down the road, such as, Three Quarter Chinese, Mandarin Express, Queen’s Café, Costa Coffee, Hotel Maya. Just after these restaurants you can find one shop on your left, Magazines.

          From there when you move on, you will reach Brigade road. You have to take a left at the place and again a left, to be walking on M.G. Road, towards the Metro Station. As you are walking towards the metro station, you will find so many book stalls, on the side of the road. Most of them are fictions and very few ‘self-help’ books. The best part of these book stalls are, you can bargain and get the book to the price, least as possible.

        Once you pass under the metro station you have Higginbothams Book shop on your left side. The white coloured building. It is another one of the reminders of the British era on M.G. Road. With Books and Stationaries, the book shop is famous for having significant number of book on Religion, Spirituality and Culture, with Fictions. You can also get texts books for most of the undergraduate courses, prescribed by universities.

        After the visiting these book shops, you can go for a metro ride by just crossing the road and entering into the station. The walk ends here.

**Best time to do this walk would be around evening 5:00 p.m. Searching for second hand books would be the best option than new ones.

**The walk may take 1 ½ hours to complete.

**Bus routes such as 315, 317, 319, 333 would take you to brigade road junction from Majestic Bus stop. From there the starting point of the walk is just 5 minutes walk.

**Good to end it with a dinner at any one of the restaurants in M.G. Road.

Credits: CitizenMatters as an Intern

Image Credits: Google Images