#211: The Alipore Post x Champaca
"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?" ~Henry Ward Beecher
Hello dear reader,
Today’s newsletter comes to you from my local bookstore Champaca Bookstore, Library and Cafe, an independently-owned women-run bookstore and cafe at the end of Edward Road in Bangalore.
It’s as hyperlocal as it possibly gets, owing to it being 975 steps from home (I counted!). It’s also been one of those places I’ve been connected to since its inception, having been visiting and even working there for its first 6 months, a dream job having manifested in the company of book loving cuties and the shade of the avocado tree.
One can immediately see the care and love that goes into creating a community around reading and storytelling with the diversity of books on the shelves. As the team likes to put it, “We have experienced the world differently thanks to the stories we've read and shared—they enrich us like nothing else, and we would like to share that with you.”
It’s always a feeling of homecoming when I visit Champaca. I plan the day and spend entire afternoons browsing and discovering new writers and publishing houses, eavesdropping on conversations about books and drooling over book spines and cover art. Case in point below:
Unlike other bookstores, you won’t find every single book on a publisher’s catalog here. The books are curated, one more fascinating than the other. Currently, there are special cabinets for Bangalore authors, a great way to support local authors:
A long-ish list of my favourite Champaca things
The constant possibility of discovering new publishing houses: from Panther’s Paw to Writer’s Workshop
The joy of discovering that your copy of the book is signed by the author
The moving ladder to get to the books on the top shelves :D
Thejaswi’s exceptional recommendations as per your reading taste
The espresso coffee, paired with a toffee cheesecake
Their children’s library, to sit and chuckle to books I grew up reading. I love that the books are colour coded as per the reading comfort of young readers.
Holding space for every kind of book: from queer and caste narratives to mental health and poetry
It’s an independent bookstore and a true labour of love that survived the pandemic by opening an online store.
And they just opened a bookstore in Anjuna, Goa!
Champaca, Goa
Reading Nature
Being someone who draws on flowers, researches nature healing for fun and read pretty much any title by Gerald Durrell whenever I need a pick-me-up, I’ve always loved the excellent Nature curation at Champaca.
A few titles I recommend, with a quote each from the book:
“The concept of the divine was an intrinsic presence that people experienced in ritual and contemplation—a force imbuing all things, a transcendent mystery that could never be defined.”
-Sacred Nature: How We Can Recover Our Bond With The Natural World by Karen Armstrong
“Cubbon Park is not just a neighbourhood… It’s a universe in and of itself, a consistently large-hearted, always contested, uniquely Bangalorean ecosystem fashioned as much of trees and flowers and insects as of hearts and souls and minds.”
-Cubbon Park: The Green Heart of Bengaluru by Roopa Pai“It was impossible to rush plants, to tell a tree to ‘hurry up’. In envy, in admiration and with ambition, I began to call that pace ‘Tree time’.”
-How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy“The sea hare’s mating congregation is an example of a mutually beneficial, well-planned orgy.”
-Superpowers On The Shore by Sejal Mehta (Radhika Recommends)“Under a brilliant moon, and unbeknownst to us, the darkened world silvers and shimmers from pink and ebony wings, a small thunder. We can’t possibly hear such an astonishing wind while we try to keep in step with our small dances on this earth. But we should try. We should try.”
-World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil“I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”
Children’s Library
Libraries create generations of diverse readers, offer a place of refuge and escape for little minds growing curious through the portal of books. Champaca offers a children’s library with over 1500 titles to borrow and fall in love with. They also run Under The Reading Tree, a blog with regular updates from the library.
To become a member, please email them at hello@champaca.in.
The Champaca Book Subscription and Book Club
The Champaca Book Subscription is a parcel of carefully curated, specially chosen books in the mail every month just for you, and a book club meeting every month. The theme for the Book Subscription’s third year, from July 2022 to June 2023, is loneliness and connection.
The Book Club meets every month. Join the community of book-lovers for warm, intimate conversations with other members, and sometimes with authors and translators.
Music to read to
A quiet playlist for book lovers to intentionally lose track of time and screens, and immerse in the book.
A space for independent publishing
Today, my relationships with books has changed. I continue to ignore my dusty Kindle forgotten away in some drawer at home. I’m not happy that I’ve read so little this year. But I read poems online almost everyday, and more than reading, I’m all about making books these days, specifically zines.
Thrilled to announce that the zines are all available at Champaca along with two books I art directed: Rucha Dhayarkar’s The Floral Monologues and Agami Justicemakers. Go and get your copies, y’all!
I feel compelled to end this newsletter with this rather apt George Carlin quote:
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
Follow @champacabooks on IG for book recommendations. And go visit your local bookstore soon. I promise you’ll feel better.
Happy reading,
Rohini
Wowwwww! This was so unexpected! Champaca is my favourite bookstore in Bangalore!
Two of my favourite curators coming together! Yay! Love it!
Have been a Champaca fan and a book subscriber for a long time <3
The Nature curation is so lovely! Especially, Mary's words - “I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”