Akshara Bookstore (Gagan Mahal)

If you happen to live by the Lower Tank Bund neighborhood and are itching to find a bookstore to satiate the need for the read, ideally, 'Akshara' of Gagan Mahal colony would fit the bill. Now this is exactly what was going on my mind as I, with all that adrenaline, set about to find the new read rage right at my backyard. Adrenaline sapped, as I began to dilly-dally my way through a maze of streets that is the Gagan Mahal colony, time and again cursing my avarice and questionable topographical awareness.

A zillion phone calls and enquiries later, I spotted the hidieous rascal! Akshara is housed in a palatial home of an IAS officer. The store is a single tiny room with no signboard at this point. Without sounding too harsh, this storelet is a concern of the 'Akshara' chain of bookstores with much bigger branches at such locales as the Banjara Hills and West Marredpally. It might still be your baby though, as it has a decent collection of Indian writing (only biographies and auto-biographies), a tiny collection of western non-fiction and fiction, although nothing contemporary. With time, there is going to be a bigger and better collection of books, gifts, music, and curios. One challenge the store and its prospective customers might face in the future is its location, my effort in spotting the store says it all.