Storyteller bookstore which originally began as a labour of love by founder Mayura Misra over 30 years ago, has completely revamped its original store in Picnic Garden near Kasba. It is a haven for bibliophiles who keep looking for a space that lets them immerse in the world of their favourite authors. Their Ballygunge store, a new one that opened doors last year, is a den for book lovers in this part of the city.
Over the years, Storyteller has built quite a reputation by hosting frequent author-reader events, bonfire nights, librarian meets, and school events, all of which have been met with massive enthusiasm by children and adults alike. Amitav Ghosh and Devdutt Pattanaik have been regulars at the Ballygunge outlet, and Ruskin Bond has addressed an equally
enthusiastic crowd online. Besides this, the Ballygunge branch organises book clubs and creative writing classes, essentially fostering a sense of community amongst young readers and writers. These activities all help contribute to turning the store’s outlets into cultural hubs, where stories are not only read but also lived and experienced.
The Picnic Garden store now boasts of a quaint little café for your coffee and book date
Both outlets of Storyteller include an exceedingly diverse range of children’s books — while one has one’s usual run-of-the-mill Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie, one need only take a cursory glance of both stores to know that there is infinitely more that is easily accessible today, and much more so if one is willing to put in the effort to look for it.
The array of children’s literature that is published today has grown vastly from what it was even a generation ago, and the outlets of Storyteller have made room within their well-lit, well-storied walls for children’s writing.
The entrance to the newly-renovated Picnic Garden outlet
And it’s not just the typical children’s fiction, either. There are books meant for kids that centre around quite serious social themes — nestled within brightly coloured, wonderfully illustrated, large-font pages are stories that deal with gender, living through a pandemic, online schooling, climate change and activism, and, in the case of a certain Shalome Rides a Royal Elephant, life as it was for the first Jews in Calcutta.
The Ballygunge outlet has made space even within its residential walls to host creative writing classes, book clubs and author-reader meets
“Storyteller, as a children’s bookstore, began with a single table in a rented room on Shakespeare Sarani in 1991, but over the course of the last 33 years, it has blossomed into a flourishing beacon of literary culture,” says Mayura Misra, posing with her son Aman Misra at her store in Picnic Garden. She adds, “Kids today are exposed to a lot of information on the Internet, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested. We just have to give them the right sort of books, help them get started on the right track. I have had children come up to me shyly at first, but by the end of my session with them, they strut about asking me what books I’ve got especially for them! By that point, it’s almost like it’s them who own the place.”
Pitching in, Aman said, “This bookstore has centred me and grounded me all through my life. So I really feel like it’s important to tell people this story about this one Sindhi woman from Calcutta who just started with one table. I really feel like that’s very, very important, specifically for children’s books. Genuine readers are becoming rarer on this planet, if we can get more people to read, especially kids, then that will be my mother’s lasting legacy. There’s also the fact that this is a very male-dominated industry. You don’t see a lot of independent women booksellers. So, in a way, running Storyteller is a form of activism.”
