Blossoms - The book shop

Those of you who have lived in Bangalore would know Blossoms. The famous three storeyed bookshop in Churchstreet. I had been there once about three months ago and had failed to discover the 3rd floor (may be I was in hurry or something). I went there again yesterday. In fact it was not a planned visit, it was just that we were looking for a decent place to dine and stumbled at Mainland China (it is a nice chinese restaurant by the way -especially their lunch buffet is value for money) and Blossoms is within a flower throw distance from Mainland China. This time I managed to discover the third floor. Second hand treasure or should I call it Treasure - second hand, anyways I am only referring to a vast collection of second hand books that was buried in this floor. I found a second hand copy of Porter's famous "Competitive Advantage of Nations" - hard bound, in good condition and only 500 rupees - a real bargain I would say. Then I found something interesting on World War-I, World War - II and by now I was really in a mood to stretch this collection. I demanded a copy of "A century in oil". It was published not so long ago but for some reason had been out of stock at all big book stores even in Europe. The salesman only once confirmed the name of the author before producing a copy. I felt cheated.

I had gone looking for this book in every possible high street book shop in Delhi, Amsterdam, Hague, at airports in Hyderabad, Bangalore, at Crosswords and here this man is standing in front of me with a copy of the very same book and that too with such a nonchalant expression as if he is only presenting me with the India Today for this fortnight. I was pleased at having found the book but at the same time was almost shocked at where I found it. The feeling was similar to having found your dream job only to discover that your boss is your biggest competitor from your schooldays.

Blossom had suddenly managed to win a seat at the top of the list of my best shops. Crossword and Sapna book house lost all appeal in that instance. I told the salesman that he has won a customer for life. The salesman either failed to pick up my accent or the purport of the sentence itself and responded with a "any other book sir". "No", I thought but managed to blurt out "The Seven sisters". Now this one was published sometime in the 70's and for sure has been out of stock since I was born (without me having to do anything with the fact off course). This time the answer was more in-line with my expectations and if it would have been anything else I would have hugged the salesman and took him out for coffee. The book was not available. And this is probably the first and last time when I was excited by the non-availability of a book which I have been wanting to read for a long time.

For those who are planning to meet me next Saturday - you know where to find me :-)