Virbhadra unveils ‘Book cafe’ in Shimla

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 11

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today inaugurated the first ‘Book cafe’ at Takka Bench in Shimla today. The cafe is a unique experiment as the government and the Prison Department have joined hands to provide rehabilitation avenues to jail inmates who will be the custodian of books provided by the Shimla Municipal Corporation and also serve eatables to customers there.

The CM said the company of books gives pleasure of both company of man and nature. Every page of a good book is a store-house of man’s best and noblest thoughts. The book café will have the best books of great minds of the entire world besides providing a fair chance to the inmates to be associated with the mainstream and lead a normal life.

The jail inmates have been imparted training in hospitality by Radisson Hotel and the trial has been successful. The cafe would be manned by four inmates and apart from hot and cold drinks, 12 items, including cookies, muffins, pastries and pizzas, manufactured by the inmates would be served to the visitors, Director General of Police (Prisons) Somesh Goyal said.

“Former SMC Commissioner Pankaj Rai came up with the idea of opening the book cafe and suggested that inmates should be given a chance to run the cafe,” he added.

A wide range of books of famous writers adorn the shelf and readers can lay their hands on writings of authors like Chetan Bhagat, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Sharma, Nikita Singh, Jules Verne, besides educational books, motivational autobiography magazines and newspapers. The cafe has a sitting capacity of 40 persons and is manned by four persons. The project funded by the Tourism Department has been completed at a cost of Rs 20 lakh.

The name “Takka Bench” was given to this small park as in the olden days a fee of “takka” (half anna or three naya paise) was charged for entry.