Why to visit College Street
Kolkata has its own ‘boi para’ (colony of books) in the form of College Street. The long stretch of street stalls, traditional bookstores, and publishers along with narrow lanes of smaller bookshops that collectively form the colony of books, run from Mahatma Gandhi Road to Bowbazaar.
The area also houses a number of prestigious educational institutions like University of Calcutta, Presidency College, and Calcutta Medical College, also known as the first medical college in the country. Dotted with makeshift bookstalls made from bamboo, wood, and tarpaulin, College Street’s charm is undeniable.
The bookstalls have books on virtually every subject matter known to man from fiction to non-fiction in myriad languages and even textbooks. This is where you will find books that will appeal to every book-love from a racy Agatha Christie thriller to the latest Indian bestseller, second-hand copies of classics and a range of imported comic books.
And the best part? You can get these books at bargain prices, sometimes at even half their market value. Apart from being famous for its collection of books, College Street is also known for being visited by the eminent literati of the city.
