Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Red Alert :P : Poetry Blog and Reflections Updated :)

Sorry for the brief hiatus. My cerebellum did not function properly for the past one week and my cranium wasn't porous enough, to allow the entry of any thoughts, that could be of any use to this page.

I am currently relishing a mixed fruit granita in seventh heaven ;) ...That's because my dad recently divulged the fact that I could do journalism after I am done with my under-graduation...I am ecstatic...My future looks bright now :) I don't regret for having chosen engineering...My dad just wanted me to have a professional degree, as far as under-graduation was concerned...Once I wrap up the 4 year course, I am planning on giving the Asian School of Journalism (Chennai) entrance exam a try...I keep sitting on the fence often, don't I ? Geminis...Sigh :D

I have always been obsessed with visiting book stores, the most prominent ones being Landmark and Higginbothams in Chennai. I make it a point to meander through the store, aimlessly, even when I don't have the idea of purchasing any book. The very thought of me, being inside a book store, surrounded by a lot of books, that breathe life into the store , inhaling the scent, that these aromatic books , radiate delights me. I spend quite some time in book stores. I love browsing through all sorts of books - Fiction to those involving the improvement of a person's culinary skills. Any person taking me to the book-store, will have to be patient and put up with me.

Last Friday, I came to know, through an ad in the newspaper, that there was this new book store (Oxford) in town. My town did not offer shelter to any decent book-store, until recently. Landmark had a branch out here. Due to the dearth of bibliomaniacs, they had to shut the shop down. The inauguration of Oxford was a welcome change. I had been to this store yesterday and it was definitely one among the very good book-stores, that I have come across. Agreed, that I cannot compare Oxford with the likes of Landmark and Higginbothams.

Oxford is situated in a not-so-quiet-but-not-so-noisy environment. It is an ideal location, according to me. I felt that the plaque, indicating the name of the store, could've been a little brighter. The interiors of this book-store are amazing. The walls are splattered with vibrant hues. Once you enter the store, there is this area, consisting of all the bestsellers, a la Landmark. The arrangement of the books is different though. The place is just sufficient, to contain the most popular books in the country. The books are pigeonholed under different sections in alphabetical order. There are separate sections for books, written in Tamil, books, written by Indian authors and books, written for pre-teens(Famous Five, Secret Seven and all those lovely Enid Blyton books), teens (all those swanky, glittery Meg Cabot's girly-girly books) and young adults (Kite Runner, Bartimaeus Trilogy, Artemis Fowl etc). There is a section in which are present an amalgamation of books, everything right from Calvin and Hobbes collection (the ones priced at Rs 225 and Rs 445 :D) to PG Wodehouse's omnibuses. There are sections, entirely devoted to Art and Architecture, Cookery, Reference, Academics and Non-Fiction, like any other book-store.

Coalescing gift shops and book-stores has become a trend. Oxford too treads, along the same path. There are a lot of giftware available - Music CDs, DVDs, key chains, coffee mugs etc. Oxford also allows people to browse the internet for Rs 25/- per hour :D .

Cha bar :
This is an offshoot of Oxford. As the name suggests, this is an expensive bistro. A lot of exquisite teas from Nilgiris, Assam, Nepal and a few other places, are available (I tried noting down the names of the teas there, for the sake of my blog. The attender caught hold of me doing that and politely flicked the menu card away from my hand :( ) . Among the very few names that I had noted down, were Punjab truck drivers' "100 meel ki" cha , Khobong (a raspberry flavoured milk-tea), Passion Fruit flavoured Iced Tea etc :). I sampled Khobong, but I didn't get to pick up that dash of raspberry flavour in it. The attenders are so courteous, that they irritate you at some point in time. I got to take home a pair of cookies for free, just because I told the attender, that I didn't get to savour the raspberry flavour in the tea :D He ended up giving the cookies, because he felt guilty and that, he wanted to give a complimentary gift (a compensation sort of thing) to make up for it :D

Bottom line : Cha Bar is sure to leave a hole in your pocket. Beware !!

I am so glad , that there is finally a satisfactory book-store (albeit the signs that say "Buy me before you read me". "Do not browse through the books, feel free to buy them"..These signs, make me feel guilty :|) out here. The person-in-charge is definitely not going to make profits out of this place, at present. But in future, when this town will brim with IT professionals and voracious readers, I am sure he's going to make good money :)

P.S : I purchased Ruskin Bond's Omnibus...haven't started reading the book, as yet...Looks yummy :P