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Rank India’s bookshops by refuge, by the second-hand book, by the languages they carry and by the company they keep, and the country’s real canon appears, from Higginbothams to Boi Para, Bahrisons to Rachna. The café-bookshop, the events calendar and the pre-loved shelf that the wider world now prizes are things India worked out long ago, often from necessity rather than fashion. Back on College Street, the incense settles, the shutters rise, and another mile of books begins its day, as it has for longer than most bookshops anywhere have been alive.