A gilded opera house bookshop, an artistically designed tank turned into a moving bookstore, both in Buenos Aires, traipse hand in hand with a 100-year-old Goan Portuguese house in Goa’s Calangute, a bookshop and café called Literati, a labour of love for its former lawyer owner, Diviya Kapur. They, through a quirk of creative meanderings find themselves among 75 of the world’s greatest book stores featured in an illustrated book by New Yorker magazine cartoonist, Bob Eckstein, called Footnotes From The World’s Greatest Bookstores. And to hit the home run, Eckstein also highlights these three in an interview (video) with the Wall Street Journal. When Diviya started her journey into law, righteous belief heaved under the hurdle ridden despair of a system collapsing.
The Bengaluru girl and National Law School student trudged along, but deep down was this dream away from courtly battles — of opening a bookstore and café and leaving the halls of crumbling justice. And when the challenges of a career in law made a cynic of her, she decided to throw it all, and become a believer again. She left Delhi and the kachheri rounds for the idyllic life in Goa, packed in her bursting rugsack was a dream aspiration, a quiet resolve, and her life ahead, circa 2003. Her dream came to life in Literati (2006), nestled amid thick shrubbery in a 100-year-old home where books reside, and so do the stories, all kept guard by Diviya’s Labrador, Frida. Cartoonist Bob Eckstein’s, Footnotes From The World’s Greatest Bookstores was launched on October 9 at BookCourt, Brooklyn, Manhattan, where Eckstein, in what must have been a remarkable anecdotal journey, brings these book havens to life.
Literati in Calangute exudes nostalgia and a love for books, as its quiet corners, warm rooms, high rafters house old and new books, with riveting conversations — a solace to any reader. A video on the WSJ site shows Eckstein talking about El Ataneo Grande in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which was earlier an opera theatre and today is the most beautiful book store in the world with opera boxes where one can curl up with a good read, book shelves where the seats used to be, and a café on the stage. Literati is the second book store mentioned in the video, after which is The Weapon of Mass Instruction, also in Buenos Aires, a moving tank that artist Raul Lemesoff has created, the second of three vehicles that delivers books free.
The illustration that Bob Eckstein gifted Diviya that appears in the book
“Eckstein mailed me some months ago, and said he was doing a book on bookstores and asked if I was ok if Literati was featured. He sent me some text too. I actually forgot about it till I got a mail a few weeks ago and he also sent me an illustration on Literati as a gift which was very thoughtful. The book has five lines, a quote by writer Amitav Ghosh and one by a regular reader on Literati,” Diviya Kapur recalls. Incidentally, Literati also won the Publishing Next Industry Award for the bookstore of the year 2014 and in a scenario where book retail is a tough endeavour, it is credible that this dreamer stuck to her guns even when profits were dwindling, to keep Literati alive, “I left Delhi and came straight to Goa — I researched, spoke to distributors and while looking for a place, many close friends helped — a banker friend helped with my business plan, another friend did the logo. The idea was new books, second hand books, events, café all together. I have a richer and more fulfilling life now,” says the girl who admits that it’s been tough sustaining it when e-books and online retail are the sharks she has to contend with.
“We started book events at a time when no one was doing them in Goa. Today, everyone has followed our cue, so we are more selective,” she adds. But that’s not all for this girl you’ll find on most occasions hidden behind a pile of books, her favourites being, “Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke, Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia, Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Let me Tell You About Quinta by Savia Viegas. “Dayanita Singh, the photographer usually does her book launches at Literati. Tania Mendonca, Saeed Mirza, etc, there are many who have launched books here,” says the bibliophile who’s hesitant to speak of the many known faces ambling in, only to get lost in the stories.
But beyond rich stories and anecdotal tapestry, also lies an altruistic hope to see the “smart”ing gen take up reading, a theme that most bookstores, in Eckstein’s delightful release, have brandished proudly. Her’s is Bebook, a mobile travelling library, a registered trust, for the children of Goa. A bus of books for children that goes once a week to four municipal schools across the state, a village panchyat and a slum. The neighbouring children also flock in, once a week. “We have one employee and a part-time driver, and usually operate with volunteers from the Book Club and the Film Club.
It is really wonderful to see the excitement when kids interact and we are able to introduce the reading habit, it’s so satisfying,” explains Diviya adding, “We are small and our aim is small.”About being featured in Eckstein’s book, she says, “It’s heartening, and when my brother and friends called me from the US, about the book, and I looked at the other bookstores Literati was amidst, it was humbling and thrilling. Not that one did it for such type of validation, but it helps keep inspired and work harder towards promoting book reading,” ends the thoughtful book lover.
