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Marcus Tullus Cicero had famously remarked, “A home without books is a body without soul.” Indeed, to help enrich the readerly experience, a visit to the nearest bookshop, namely the Oxford Bookstore is absolutely essential. The various outlets, spread as they are all over the country, offer a vast assortment of titles along with choicest music merchandise, tasteful gift and novelty items, an innovative event space, a restful Cha Bar zone and Internet facilities.
The ambient experience is one of delectable warmth and comfort, thereby ensuring a pleasurable reading experience. The stores are often frequented by renowned personalities from various occupational spheres such as Amartya Sen; the late Satyajit Ray; Amitav Ghosh; Salman Rushdie; Sir V.S.Naipaul; Gunter Grass; Vikram Seth; Paritosh Sen; Narayan Murty; Rajmata Gayatri Devi; Ravi Shankar; Shyam Benegal; Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan; and A.R.Rahman, to name a few. The Prince and Princess of Thailand and the royal families of Japan and Bhutan are among Oxford's illustrious foreign guests, as are other visiting dignitaries and diplomats. Here, generations of book lovers have enjoyed browsing through works known and unknown. Oxford's clientele includes professionals, students, tourists, businessmen, housewives, young children just learning their ABCs and retired professors who seek to endlessly expand their knowledge horizon. They have marveled at the prompt and eager assistance provided by a dedicated, dynamic team that works tirelessly to make certain the continued success of Oxford Bookstore. |
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Calcutta has always been a city of books, and Oxford Bookstore has been a part of its life and times since 1920. Oxford now enjoys a respected presence countrywide and has extended operations to Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, New Delhi, Chennai and Bhubaneswar. The opening of outlets in conformity with two retail formats – Oxford Express and Franchisee models has also met with great success.
Launched in September 22, 2000 www.oxfordbookstore.com, India’s largest book web store provides the online presence. It boasts of over half a million of book and music titles, bringing to the devoted bookworms a continuously updated selection of Indian and foreign titles at special Indian prices.
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Enterprise and vision; commitment to tradition and state-of-the-art technology; the very best in books, services and amenities - the history of the Oxford Bookstore is rooted in these.
Calcutta or Kolkata, as it is known now, was where it started over 80 years ago. Initially known as the Oxford Book & Stationery Co., it belonged to the Primlani's of Sind. The store, strategically located at the heart of the cultural capital of Eastern India, soon carved a special niche for itself in the hearts of book lovers in Calcutta and the entire Northeastern region - this in the era of stalwarts like Thacker & Spink, Newman's and others.
Circa 1995...the commemoration of its Platinum Anniversary saw the |
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refashioning of Oxford Book & Stationery Co as the Oxford Bookstore - Gallery, now an Apeejay Surrendra Group company. The venerable Mr. Jit Paul reassured book lovers that Oxford would grow and add even more lustre to its impeccable reputation. 'Books provide food for thought and I consider this very important.' Located in The Park Arcade, in the heart of the city, the Oxford Bookstore now comprises over 6000 square feet of multilevel interactive space. The recreated Oxford Bookstore-Gallery carries proudly the ambience of the past, but moves into the future physically and metaphorically through its new extension. The new facilities include around 100 well-researched, well-stocked and displayed book sections; India's first Alternative Art Gallery; and top-of-the-line amenities and services.
Ms. Priti Paul had promised book lovers of Calcutta – “the city I love and grew up in - a contemporary, multidimensional experience, in keeping with international trends. Access to the very best in publishing will be enhanced by a variety of events which salute books and art.” Since then, she, acting in the capacity of Oxford's director, has taken Oxford to unprecedented heights.
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Our mission is to be the best equipped 'base-camp' for journeys of the mind, offering our valued customers the widest range of titles and consistently courteous and informed service. A banker may take refuge in collecting books on ornithology to get away from work; a computer scientist may buy books on old-fashioned machines. The well-stocked sections suitably cater to diverse reading habits of people, thereby opening up new vistas of knowledge and learning.
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The three components the bookshop, event space and Cha Bar, while retaining their individual identities, are woven together in one space creating a unique story of an exclusively designed space. This distinctive space has been the organizing principle for all the Oxford bookstores.
| The various sections display books on a range of topics. Relax into the specially designed comfortable seating areas, and enjoy an exhilarating read in complete privacy. A singular “shop within a shop” concept evolves as different sections enact their own drama with the main plot merging with sub-plot to showcase their own separate “mini-worlds”. |
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The refreshing and stylish interior of the Cha Bar tempts all to satisfy the craving for “food for thought”. Hours spent thumbing through books, or just breathing in the smell of the printed page can be exhausting. So for that pause between Grisham and Ghalib, we present exceptionally fine teas - Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri, Organic blends - brewed to soothe and cheer.
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| Cha Bar flows into the event space, providing a physical space to unwind, observe, listen, think, dream and read. Warm timber finished event area, recreating the ambience of a library or salon, is perfect for book readings, art exhibitions, film discussions, lectures, performance arts and other gatherings. Fully automated with AV equipment, it seats more than 100 people. This multi use cultural space contributes to the various literary events, and elevates the experience of book buying and browsing to a different plane. |
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We offer a variety of gift and reading-related items such as pens, albums, globes, bookmarks, as well as a range of beautiful stationery, notebooks, wrapping paper, cards and flowers. Oxford promotes a range of exquisite eco-friendly items, tribal artifacts and recycled paper gifts.
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| Oxford’s magazine section holds a well-stocked collection of both Indian and foreign publications. It enables popular access to foreign journals and newspapers that are otherwise hard to find. |
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Get wired and greet the new world at CYBER SURF, Oxford's surfing terminals. You can surf, send mail and cards and chat with your loved ones in privacy or with the assistance of our Cyber Surf Attendant. Or, you can become a member of the Cyber Surf and get fabulous returns by way of click hours and benefits. You can make the most of the new web technology here, minus the usual surf problems.
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The only online offline integrated store in the country, Oxford Bookstore in Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Shillong and Goa, has an access to 6 million titles from Indian and international markets.
Oxford's fiction collection offers readers the widest possible choice of writers and works alike. On display are masterpieces of diverse cultural origin that have enjoyed immense critical and commercial acclaim. For readers who have chosen their favourites for life, there will be the thrill of exploring new and fresh literary terrain. |
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To keep up with the ever-rising demands from a highly competitive and dynamic business world Oxford maintains the widest and the most relevant range of business books to satisfy the intellectual palate of the business legends of today and the business maharajas of tomorrow. |
| Our New Age section helps one understand and nourish Mind, Body and Spirit. Books on thought and belief address universal questions. Titles by the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Osho and others show the way. In sections varying from religion to philosophy, sociology and Indology, yoga and self-help, we have the books that strike a positive and life-affirming note. |
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From Scot and Jon Krakauer to William Dalrymple and our very own Butter Chicken in Ludhiana - this section takes the armchair traveller across myriad destinations, known and ready to be visited, and unknown and ready for exploration. Tragi-comic travelogues, adrenaline pumping climbing stories, informative guide books, snapshots and postcards of India and Asia and other treasures for intrepid travellers makes this section a popular one among tourists and locals alike. |
| Our extensive and outstanding collection of art and coffee-table books makes it a haven for all art-lovers. Oxford has tied-in with Thames & Hudson, London, the world's most eminent publisher and distributor of art and illustrated books to bring you everything from the Renaissance masters and modern theatre to the latest in the world of architecture and design. |
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'From a timid, shy girl I had become a woman of resolute character, who could no longer be frightened by the struggle with troubles.' - Anna Dostoevsky (1846-1918)
This section tells the many stories of the 'universal woman', her life in her times, her struggles and survival in a patriarchal world, her dedication and acceptance of her station in society, her courage and her wisdom. From biographies to anthologies, facts and fiction, celebration and remonstrance - this is her story.
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| Modern man, who drops the flowers in the fields to embrace the falsely blooming flowers of vast civilizations, no longer understands what it means to return to nature. Where is the key that will open up the road back to nature? - Masanobu Fukunoka, The Road Back To Nature. Oxford's Green Books Section offers just such a key that opens the door to the vital concerns of environmental protection and conservation. Titles range from horticulture, floriculture, herb remedies, naturopathy, aromatherapy, gardening, landscape designing, green revolution, to conservation and other global issues. |
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From Infosys to Microsoft, the principal brain bank is indisputably Indian. To feed the grey cells of this rapidly increasing cyber population, a kaleidoscopic collection of computer books in the store ensures that you are e-quipped for the road ahead, and your business runs @ the speed of thought.
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| Indian writing in English has come to be highly appreciated for its literary eminence. Thanks to India Ink, Picador, Harper Collins, Penguin and a host of other publishers, writers with the India connection have achieved global recognition. Our history, our way of life, can now be shared by millions Oxford has devoted a separate section to salute every one of them - from Mulk Raj Anand and V S Naipaul to Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy. |
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A well-stocked Vernacular section offering the latest in regional publishing has been specially arranged to promote works reflect the multi-ranging cultural patterns. The mind of India breathes through these works that give the readers rare insights into cultures that together lend a mysterious charm to the nation as a whole. |
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India has more languages and living dialects than any other country in the world, and every one of them holds a long continuity of ideas, literature, and folklore, slowly surfacing over two centuries now in a rich tradition of translations. Oxford has taken special care to collect reliable translations of the entire range - the master texts of Indian philosophy, religion, aesthetics, music, theatre, medicine, politics; folk ballads and popular poetry; representative works of the modern and contemporary writers in the major Indian languages - Ghalib, Iqbal, Premchand, Manto, Anantamurthy, Tendulkar, Karnad, Manik Bandophadhyay and others; and of course the old masters - Kalidasa, Bhasa, Sudraka, and the medieval Sanskrit poets.
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Oxford provides a stimulating forum for an array of events and promotions. Novel, interesting, and thought provoking, these events at once inform and delight.
The first of the many events at Oxford was the 3-day umbrella-painting workshop with Sahmat, where artists Haku Shah, Madhavi Parikh, Shamshad and Vivan Sundaram painted on hundreds of umbrellas with children, on the theme of |
| harmony. The umbrellas symbolizing 'all sharing under one sky', was Oxford's tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 125th birth anniversary. |
August gatherings have taken place in the event of book launches, readings, signings and lively interactive sessions with established literary gurus, as well as aspiring writers, from India and abroad. Dominique Lapierre, Ruskin Bond, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Bedi, Alyque Padamsee, Rupa Bajwa, Hiranmay Karlekar and others have read to discerning audiences at Oxford.
A multimedia presentation on the Art of Satyajit Ray was held on the 75th birth anniversary of the late filmmaker at Oxford. Ray's art, his music, films and calligraphy was seen together for the first time. A memorable avant-garde weekend was held in February 1997, beginning with the launch of a book on contemporary Indian art - The Flamed Mosaic, by Neville Tuli. An hour-long lecture on Aesthetics as Value-system was given by Tuli before a packed house comprising artists like Paritosh Sen, Shuvaprasanna, Chitrabhanu Majumdar, Ganesh Pyne and Veena Bhargava. The day after saw inauguration of sculptures |
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| by K S Radhakrishnan, and a contemporary dance recital by Aditi Mangaldas incorporating the gigantic sculptures - all this to mark the launch of the Art News Magazine of India in Kolkata. The day ended with the launch of a T-shirt with a drawing by M.F. Hussain, portraying his feelings on the subject of censorship of the arts. |
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The newly expanded and refurbished Alternative Art Gallery promotes different forms of expression; art forms such as photography, ceramics, business design, advertisement graphics, calligraphy, sketches, poster design, sculptures, paintings etc. are all encouraged. 'Framed Feelings', a collection of photographs by Nemai Ghosh, was a medley of expressions capturing, in the artist's words, the 'flotsam and jetsam of human life'. Pradeep Dasgupta's 'Blue Cups On Springs' was an expression of the artist's imaginary world, where each object had a story, and in groups, they formed chapters of an anthology of fairy tales. Dinesh Khanna's delightful chronicle of life on the streets depicted the silent drama in wall graffiti, doors, cramped windows and wooden slippers. India's first International Digital Art Exhibition was held at our gallery to celebrate the new |
| millennium. Curated by Dr Rodney Chang of Hawaii, the work of 13 digital artists from 10 countries was displayed both traditionally, as well as electronically on monitors. Pamela Singh, Adam Fuss and Karoki Lewis are among the many others who have captivated the hearts of thousands through their unique subjects on display at Oxford. |
Oxford Bookstore is noted for its care and concern for the underprivileged multitude. In 2002, Children of Sonagachhi, a photography exhibition curated by Zana Briski and Ross Kaufman was first put on show in the Kolkata bookstore. Eventually it formed the basis of an Oscar-winning documentary “Born into Brothels” and a non-profit organization called Kids with Cameras.
- Chairman - Apeejay Surrendra Group
- Director - Apeejay Surrendra Group
- Chief Finance Officer
- Head - Cha Bar
- Country Head - Operations & Purchase
- Director
- Consultant
- Deputy Manager - IT
- Senior Executive | Web Marketing
- Assistant Manager | Web & IT Application
- Executive - Web Content and Operations
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Tata Consultancy Services has partnered with Oxford Bookstore to provide an integrated suite of solutions, helping them interact with customers, partners, and employees. Oxford Bookstore is a demonstration of TCS SMB's innovative offering "IT-as-a-Service". To know more about TCS’ “IT-as-a-Service” click here. |
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