They make kids turn a page here

NEW DELHI: Sandwiched between a pizza joint and a butcher shop near Alaknanda is an island of spies, gorgons, heartbroken princesses and hungry caterpillars. A place for kids to meet, browse and even talk to their favourite authors every now and then, `Eureka!' is a labour of love. "We only wanted to bring children and books together, under one roof,'' says M Venkatesh of the bookshop he set up in 2003 with Swati Roy.The two of them gave up their careers Venkatesh was a journalist and Swati a marketing professional to pursue their passion for children's books.
"These books occupied only a small section in big bookstores bestsellers, pulp and other fast-moving genre made more business sense,'' says Swati, who admits to "not taking the business part of starting a bookshop too seriously.'' It was a mission to hook young people to the written word and the two have remained true to that goal.
They have been regularly teaming up with popular children's authors to make literature accessible and fun. Book-reading sessions by enthused parents, teachers as well as authors like Ruskin Bond who had kids and grown-ups alike waiting in queues to meet him have given parents a much-needed alternative to malls and movies. There are painting classes, quizzes and prizes too.
It was in 2006 that Venkatesh and Swati decided that it wasn't enough to be a bookstore with activities. "We started Heek, a kids' magazine,'' recalled Swati. Initially, they contributed articles themselves, but now it has reputed authors writing for it and a growing young readership.
While the whiff of words was enough to drive kids from neighbouring colonies to the store, the duo also wanted to reach out to those who couldn't make it. Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival, that took place in November last year at Sanskriti, Anand Gram, and brought together over 3000 children and 37 authors, including Anushka Ravishankar and Subhadra Sengupta, is yet another paper-and-ink testimony of the pair's zeal for engaging a child's imagination.
`Bookaroo in the City', book-related events for under-privileged children, in collaboration with NGO Pratham (Delhi), as well as authors, storytellers, poets and actors such as Bulbul Sharma, Rukmini Banerji, Indira Yadav Kshama Sharma and Anupa Lal, was an endeavour to break the monotony of government-school time-tables.
`Eureka!' is an enterprise based on pure conviction. "It all began when we participated in a book fair in DLF, around six years ago,'' recalls Swati. Chatting over a cup of coffee, the two of them were amused by the memory of carrying trunks full of books to the fair. "We had no help, but the sheer physical labour was worth it kids came in droves,'' says Venkatesh.
The first brick-and-mortar version of their idea was a small shop in CR Park and the Alaknanda shop opened in 2004. The duo's attention to detail can be gauged from the fact that even the gift wrapping papers they stock stand out.
Jo Williams, who formerly organized the Red House Children's Book Award in UK and is a volunteer at the store, recommending books to children as well as reading to them occasionally, says, "While we do have the usual Enid Blytons that everyone seems to have grown up with, there's a whole lot of books that have a deeper connect with everyday life characters from broken homes, depressive mums, school issues are also the stuff of kids books.''
Personalised attention is what grabs the kids and drives them here. Sapna Sehgal, a physiotherapist whose 14-year-old daughter, Srishti, just loves Eureka!, says, "There's a warmth here that you don't feel in the bigger stores. It's really much more than selling books; it's about finding the right book for a certain kind of child.''
To connect more than sell is perhaps the key to a successful enterprise. As Venkatesh admits, "We did eventually break even, but before that it was blood, sweat and savings!''