west bengal

From the Bibliophile's Bookmark to the Hodophile's Checklist

Park Street of Kolkata is a posh neighbourhood full of luxury hotels, high-class restaurants and teeming pubs. Amidst all these extravagances, is situated in a different world, a break from the daily honks of accountabilities- the bookworms’ paradise as Oxford Bookstore. The front entrance showcasing the colourful covers of the latest books and the curving glass lures one like a mermaid’s call. And once afoot is stepped into the chic and refined interior, it’s easy to forget the world you left on the other side of the door.

Cha Bar, Park Street

Address: 17 Park Street, Oxford Bookstore, Park Street, Kolkata, Taltala, West Bengal- 700016

Through the aisles

The aisles are separated by shelves of quaint and contemporary books that manoeuvres you to walk sluggishly so that not a single sight of them is missed out. But that is not the end, it is just the beginning. On the left, you get down two steps to land yourself amidst delicate little showpieces arranged on the shelves and a kid’s corner. But the most admiring sight is, through the right, you find a spiral wooden staircase, follow the trail and walk through a bookshelves-studded wooden walkway to the a-la-café on a pseudo-first floor. The walkway itself has wooden seats to get you seated, other than which the whole floor is dedicated to the café.

Through the walkway

The cha bar

The seating area

Amidst the art

Get yourself a book and have a seat, be it at a lone corner side, or amidst the lights or on the connecting veranda type area overlooking the entrance to this enchanting world of fictions and fables. Whatever might be your choice, you will be exquisitely surrounded by the aromatic whiff of the tea (different flavours are available here), all the way through the pages of the book. You can spend hours here hovering over the pages and dipping into your own lavish world. The ambience and décor are impeccable enough to impact your imagination; to take you to Narnia through the wardrobe, or to the magical platform of Kings Cross station where a whistling train awaits your journey to Hogwarts. You may even be coaxed to try uttering the words written on the books and check whether you happen to be an Inkheart or not.

The perfect retreat for a few hours sitting right in the city itself.

If you are worried about which book to pick up then here's your list of books that would meet both your wanderlust and imagination as well.

Cross the door and enter this enchanted world

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Jayashree Sengupta

A civil engineer and researcher by profession and an avid traveler, hailing from India, with an appetite for experiencing places in a more instinctive way- absorbing the culture and the tradition, the dialect and the geography of the place. Be it any ‘-scape’, mountain, sea, city or desert, conquering the unknown is always a thrill, an added adventure activity would be a quintessential spree. The motto is more like, vini vidi vici, a little modified to “I came, I saw, I ticked it off my map”; even if it is a short day trip, an off-the-beaten path excites me more.