Blossoms, Bengaluru: A bookshop still in bloom

Where readers live, the streets are paved with books instead of bricks. Mountains of second-hand books wait for travellers from all corners of the country to come climb them. To stand among books spread on the ground or stacked on shelves, high on the heady smell of paper, poring over a title here, a cover there, is literary heaven.

All you know about life, you picked up from beloved old dog-eared books gifted to you. The Moore market of Madras was legendary; once upon a time, all books magically came from there. As a student in Delhi, you stood among a sea of books in Daryaganj – the Patri Kitab Bazar sprang to life every Sunday like a dream town powered by paper. In Mumbai, it was the Flora Fountain area where you spied old, old books and pirated bestsellers. And in Bengaluru, it’s always been Blossom Book House.

Twentieth birthday and yet Blossoms, the legendary congregating spot for bookworms in this city only looks younger and younger. The store in Church Street multiplied, opening up space, stacking more books, showcasing by genre. It is the Narnia off a main artery road; you duck into this shop and are instantly transported into another world. A world where you fondly run into old-friend books, books you relished as a child, or are intoxicated by the proximity to stranger books that you know you can take home and get to know well.

I have gone there alone, with friends, with kids and with tourists visiting Bengaluru for the first time. Where books are laid out on aisles and tables and sudden sharp nooks and ladders, where you can spend hours browsing and choosing. Like Clark Kent darting into a phone booth and changing into his Superman togs, one walks in with two free hands into Blossoms and leaves with books and the feverish excitement of getting to read them soon.