On the first floor of South Point Mall in Gurugram, is Chapter 101, a quietly resplendent refuge for lovers of rare, classic and hard-to-find titles. Warm teak wood, dark polished panels, heavy shelving, the hush of a stately country house library – this bookstore was founded in 2017 by Raju Singh, a man who seems to set a value on bygone eras, has a taste for jazz, and the comforting smell of old paper meeting fine wood.
The carefully-curated titles look beyond the bestsellers; rich leather-bound tomes are interspersed with elegant hardbacks; memoirs by Gustave Flaubert and Kingsley Amis rub shoulders with hardbound editions of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. A customer, Ishita remarks, “I’ve never seen a bookstore like this — the classics collection alone made me stay for hours.”
On the walls hang posters of Bob Dylan and John Lennon with their original signatures. There are also posters of three heroes of civil rights movements -- Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr, their presence, a reminder that this is not simply a retail space but an environment for deeper reflection and discovery.
Inclusive tastes
The store also caters to contemporary demands. A young visitor browses with laser focus, searching for the latest edition of The Hobbit, “that was supposed to be one of the originals”. Elsewhere another customer asks, “Do you have the biography of Nelson Mandela?” pointing to the portrait on the wall.
Behind the counter is the store’s manager Ashok Kumar, who observes quietly from a polished mahogany desk near one of the fireplaces, adding to the colonial ambience. “We want this place to feel timeless. One enters here and leaves the rush of the mall corridor behind. We hope that what you find is more than a book, rather a connection to its world,” he says.
Indeed, the warmth is literal and figurative: low reading lights embedded in shelves, comfortable seating nooks tucked away for serious browsing, and the subtle sense that one is in a house of words rather than at a sales counter. Posters and portraits conspire with the furnishings to evoke an era when reading was deliberate and space was for reflection.
The curation
The shop houses five publishers’ stocks, a mix of vintage runs and carefully acquired rarities. It’s a space where first editions still surface. While Ishita continues rifling through a shelf of memoirs, she says: “I come here when I want to find a book I didn’t know I was looking for, and I always walk out with something unexpected.”
This is no retail theatre. There is no push to rush you out. Instead you’re invited to linger. To hold a rare binding. To feel the weight of a title. To contemplate the lineage of thought behind every cover. The sound of the mall beyond fades away. You are momentarily in a different world.
If you’re planning a visit, here are a few tips: consider going in the late afternoon when the lighting is at its richest and the crowd lightest; ask the manager about the old hardbound collection — he may point you to a “hidden” shelf of slips-cased editions; and if you’re serious about a rare find, mention your title of interest — they’re accustomed to sourcing beyond what’s on display, while the prices range from R1200 to R10,000 and above for more rare books.
In an age of online ordering, algorithm-driven recommendations and endless choice, this shop stands apart as an analogue island. Instead of the best-seller board, it offers a place for the collector, the curious reader, the quiet thinker.
(Written by Keerthivas of The New Indian Express)