It is four in the evening. Sitting in one of the corners of the beautiful bookstore, owner Radhika Timbadia is taking her first break of the day with her favourite “shade-grown” Coorg coffee and the latest edition of Tinkle with one eye on the door. “It has been a tough year, but we are glad to be still in business,” says the seasoned community-based ecologist with a smile as she settles to talk about the year gone by. Vangelis’ Conquest of The Paradise perfectly mirrors the mood of the 35-year-old, who calls the last year her “most challenging tutor”. “Pandemic and 2020, have taught me more about being a businesswoman, about making some really tough decisions, finding a new course of action, and the fact that sheer conviction isn’t enough unless it is backed with a strong board of financial viability,” says the winner of Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) fellowship. She calls Champaca her life’s “best decision and learning.”
Not many know that the birth of Champaca, a dream project for Radhika five years ago, was based on sheer conviction of proving her detractors wrong. Recalls Radhika, “When I began working on the idea of a bookstore-library and café, I was simply told to stay off. The concept of a place that ‘helped people to slow down and smell the coffee, literally with filter
coffee and a book’ seemed romantically perfect, but on paper. Radhika thought otherwise, little knowing that opening and running a bookstore would be akin to “baptism by fire” with the worse “googly” thrown in by the pandemic.
“Two years before groundwork on Champaca started, I knew why I was getting a space but was pretty much naïve to the process of what such a seemingly dream-like project would entail bringing to life,” remembers the comic book fanatic as she admires the tastefully done 940-sqft store that has a story at every nook and cranny.
“Till then, as a wildlife ecologist, I had travelled most of India, eaten and explored some of the uncharted roads, set up libraries at bare minimum resources, and knew more about plantations and tribal food than some of the food people I met. In my head, I was all set for business,” recalls the foodie, who spent the first few months conceptualising and building up the concept on paper, then a year on groundwork and research that involved meeting the chef of her favourite places, studying good restaurant even listening to seasoned people on the subject, and realised, “this was just the tip of the entrepreneurial iceberg. 24 months later, work began in stages. First, came the location of a tiny place close to Cubbon Park. Then the children’s library cataloged by Radhika and then the café. And then came the challenges of putting it all together. A shoe-string budget and a constant tussle between desire and possibility became her first hard taskmaster. Like, she says, “the decision for crockery of the café, which after a few errors — our first set of serving glasses broke in a month of opening — was standardised at the conventional white plate. Food had to do all the talking. Another choice was making our own tables instead of buying ready-made. It allowed effective utilisation of the real estate.”
Children remained the central theme for Champaca, and one sees it in every detail of the space — be it with the kid-friendly library to the café menu that was designed by Sarah Edwards from Copper and Cloves and has this Enid Blyton theme inspired peanut butter pancakes and milk buns with avocado (thanks to a flourishing tree in the vicinity) and chicken or her own favourites like Sri Lankan grilled chicken sandwich with coconut sambol and crispy fried onions, and the slow-cooked mutton with tamarind and served with millet and pickled cucumber. Even the interiors have a dash of nostalgia courtesy Akshara Verma from Ace Group Architects, who took the project as a challenge.
It was Radhika’s book-mused approach to Champaca that came into play when she decided to turn to the online space during lockdown to allow people the virtues of an online library. “From starting an e-library that encouraged people to order books online to arranging author
interaction and masterclass, and even reading sessions, we did it all,” says the owner who continued with the online facilities even as the bookstore opened shop. “Bookstore businesses have always had it tough, and there is this constant need to reinvent to be able to attract people to choose a book over say a series on the OTT platform,” says Radhika, who when not crunching numbers is looking at different avenues and association to forward her crusade of encouraging people, especially kids to read. And that is where the exceptional all-women team of Champaca proves to be her biggest asset. “Most members of my team are here from the pre-opening days and hence this acute sense of ownership which makes them fill in for each other when required. Like our base staff began cooking food when we had to let go of the first chef, they even took to service when needed,” says Radhika, who hopes that things would improve soon.