Stop 02 on the SpiceRoute: College Street, Kolkata
Locals call it Boi Para, the book neighbourhood, and the name undersells it. College Street is a whole stretch of the city given over to paper: tiny stalls wedged against university walls, pavements stacked shoulder-high with textbooks, poetry, old Penguins, competitive-exam guides and the occasional first edition nobody has noticed yet.
You don't really browse College Street. You get found by it. Mention a title to a bookseller and he'll disappear behind a wall of spines and come back with it, or with something he thinks you should read instead. Usually he's right.
Coffee, arguments and the tram bell
When your arms ache from carrying books, there's the Indian Coffee House upstairs. It's a high-ceilinged hall where generations of students, poets and would-be revolutionaries have argued over cold coffee and cutlets. The tram bell from the street drifts up through the windows. Nobody is ever in a hurry to leave.
Designing for readers
College Street gave us our bookmark collection. The College Street bookmark stacks colourful spines above a little blue tram against a sunset gradient. Boi Aar Cha (books and tea) is our idea of a perfect Sunday. And Just One More Chapter is for the 1 a.m. reader in all of us.
If you go
- Go on a weekday afternoon. Some stalls close on Sundays.
- Know roughly what you're looking for, but stay open to a detour.
- Bargaining is expected, and so is politeness.
Carry this story: College Street Bookmark · Boi Aar Cha Bookmark · Just One More Chapter
