A diamond on its cover

A diamond on its cover
Deccan Herald

As it celebrates its diamond jubilee, the Select Book Shop remains a treasure trove for a range of antiquarian books.

It happened 60 years ago, even before India got its Independence. A treasure trove of books was brought to Bangalore, first to a small garage off South Parade Road, on Museum Road.

Today it has shifted to Brigade Road Cross and is known as the Select Book Shop, for the select range of antiquarian book it offers.

A passion for books led founder Kannim Bille Krishnamurthy Rao to travel high and low, sift through piles and piles of books and carefully add to his collection.

A lawyer by profession, Rao, also known as KBK, had the penchant for books since he was a student in Chennai.

Recalls K K S Murthy, Rao’s son and successor, "My father had some kind of a magnetic touch for rare collection of books. I used to go with him to the Balepet market on Sundays. Some of father's friends would come there earlier, because they knew that when KBK came, he would leave no books for their library. But my father would still be able to pick the choicest of the books leaving his friends in awe and surprise that they were not able to lay their hands on the same books earlier."

The stories are many, he says, narrating bits and pieces of the tales even as he quoted prices for the books he had put on sale at the Mythic Society as part of Select Book Shop’s on-going diamond jubilee celebrations.

“In the mid 70s, just after I took over from my father, I thought this was an easy job. But one incident made me realise that satisfying the customer's tastes is not easy,” says Murthy, citing an incident to assert his point.

"One rainy evening, a tall elderly gentleman came to the store looking for some acadmic books for his daughter. The gentleman was brusque and tough in appearance and manner and he looked at me with some suspicion. After learning that I had taken over the tradition, he said, ‘your father gave such good books to my daughter that she passed with very good grades. Now she is going for higher education and I want you to live up to your father's status and find the books mentioned in this list for her.’ He gave me two days time and left.

“Meanwhile, I searched high and low for the books in the store but found only two of the 17 he wanted.

“Finally, I went to a place frequented by my father and to my surprise, I found nearly all the books there. The next day when the gentleman came around, I was able to give him what he wanted and he left but not before saying that I was indeed a worthy successor to my father,” recalls Murthy.