Its Story time in Howrah, with the Elgin Road bookstore opening an outlet in Avani Riverside Mall. The 685 square feet store on the ground floor that opened on January 15 is drawing many customers, who are walking in to browse through the titles.

A lookaround reveals that Story focuses on children’s books. Activity books, drawing and handwriting books and illustrated story books for the little ones line up the shelves. Parents walk in from time to time looking for something for their growing children. For those who can read, there are a large number of colourful Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl books to choose from. For the studious ones, there are illustrated encyclopaedias or guide books on how to write essays and letters. “One of the main reasons behind making a store dedicated to children’s books is that Avani Riverside Mall is primarily a family mall. People come with their children and usually like to shop for them,” said Sidharth Pansari of Story. “In Howrah, there is no good standalone bookstore and so we thought of opening a branch in Avani Riverside Mall,” he added.

Reema Sen, a weekend shopper at the mall, said, “I came looking for stationery items and educational toys for my son. This is the first time I came to Story and found that they have a good collection of books, but I didn’t go through them properly.”

This is the third branch of Story with another two in Junction Mall in Durgapur and Diamond Plaza in Jessore Road. Due to its small size, this store is being called an express outlet. “Since we do not have the space to stock up on a large number of books at a time, we try to keep the best titles and popular authors at this store,” said Pansari.

The Bengali customers are delighted to see a bookstore with Bengali books at Avani Riverside. However, some feel that some more titles and authors could be accommodated. “The collection of novels and short stories here are good. They have some popular writers too but I am sure booklovers will also want to see titles by Tasleema Nasreen, Tilottama Majumdar, Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Tarapada Roy, Syed Mustafa Ali and so on,” said Arun Kumar Mitra, a resident of Shibpur who had come to browse through the collection at Story.

Ranjan Das, the store manager said, “We have already sold several copies of Byomkesh Samagrah and Satyajit Ray’s Feluda compilations. For those who are looking for some serious books, Suchitra Bhattacharya, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Sirshendu Mukherjee and other well-known authors’ works have been stocked up as well.”
There are some buyers who ask for poetry collections. Although all books may not be available off the shelf, Pansari promises that if a customer places an order for any particular book, he or she will get it within a day. “We have a large stock of books at our main store and can supply the required books overnight,” he said.

Among the young generation, Chetan Bhagat is a craze, specially his new book, Half Girlfriend. John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska are also selling at Story. Collections of short stories by O’Henry, Rabindranath Tagore or books on assorted short stories are also in demand.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, India / Front Page> Howrah> Story / by Dalia Mukherjee / Friday – March 27th, 2015