For the book lover in Bangladesh, Nilkhet used to be the dream – the joy of wandering around with nothing definite in mind and suddenly stumbling across a rare copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls or the Tin Drum is an amazing feeling and to go home and give the book its rightful place on the shelf after writing the owner's name on the first page is a beautiful ritual. But sadly, only those with extraordinary luck would stumble across these books. The next place to look would most definitely be Aziz Super Market, once a hub of intellectuals, poets and writers. But it still left something to be wanted. Shopping for books is a ritual for the book lover – you do not just get in and grab something and buy it like groceries. Every avid reader knows the intensity of internal debates over what to pick, the joy of leisurely browsing through shelf after shelf and then finally settling on one. Unfortunately, most book shops here are crammed places where one needs to jostle among a crowd to even get a view of the shelves, and the limited space equals a limited amount of time that one can stay there without buying anything. So Pathak Shamabesh, with its new, huge bookshop is a blessing for the people for whom buying books is more than just shopping.
Located just opposite of Aziz Super Market, on the second floor of the Agrani Bank office, the shop is heaven to walk into. From the ambience to the collection, it is a book lover's dream come true. The arrangement of the shelves is very convenient. Arranged along the walls of the store, shelves display collections on history, politics, arts, popular science, fiction, poetry, classics, contemporaries – from the ardent reader looking to brush off on his history or the teenager looking for the latest fantasy series – Pathak Shamabesh should be the first place to look.
Prominent writers like Ahmad Sofa, Hasan Azizul Huq, Milan Kundera or Haruki Murakami have separate shelves devoted to their work. The ambience is bliss, the perfect atmosphere to peruse the shelves from one corner to the end. You can pick up books, sit and read a few pages and contemplate just how many you can buy this time. The shop is decorated with cultural motifs tastefully and one wonders why there are not more shops like this in a country with so many book lovers.
As Sajan, a regular at the store says, “This is the perfect place to indulge in buying books, to go in without any definite aim and strike gold. If we had a few more bookshops like this in Dhaka, it would be an amazing place to live in.”
The staff is friendly and if you do happen to have a particular title in mind, always eager to help you find it. For those who go into bookshops and end up buying a handful, trolleys are provided to cart them around. The store is yet to be formally inaugurated and hopefully after this December, the collection will only increase. Pathak Shamabesh stays open till 9:00pm and is perfect to stop by after work hours to pick up the next book on your list. All the copies are originals and with Tk 500 in your pocket, you can hope to pick up a good read. It is definitely a store book lovers can lose themselves in for hours.
Photo: Moyukh Mahtab