The "Naming" ceremony

Often i have been asked ... how "twistntales" was born...

Once we (Shyam and me) had visited Mahesh in Paperback. On 31st Dec 2001. I loved "Paperback" - jute flooring and modas to sit on ... but a very adult book browsing experience. It to me looked like a lovely place to chill and spend hours ... looking for books for yourself. But i was then a mother of a two and a half year old. I found Cap seller and Monkey for Nan but little else.

At that stage of life i was looking at both, books that appealed to me as a reader and those for a mother to read to her child.

So, when Mahesh and Shyam asked me if i would like to be a franchisee of "Paperback", i was not sure. It would have made life a lot easier for me, but i was not wanting to be that. My bookstore had to have an element of child in it. It was to be a family Store, appealing to all, particularly to young mothers ! My sympathies were completely for her.

Many of us give up lucrative jobs and careers not out of any family pressure, but voluntarily to enjoy the baby, to bond and feel the bliss (!!!!!) of motherhood. But it does leave you at a loose end. You either have baby talk for company the whole day or have an option in kitty parties. For those of us who yearn for the other fun dimension in our lives, your activity is restricted to where your stroller can fit in! Which leaves movies out. Which brings us to books !

The bookstore to me was therefore a place where a young mother could come in and spend a few hours (another reason why i never closed in the afternoons)... and pick books both for herself and her kid .... and dnt have to depend on her husband to drive her around ... we were/are the shop around the corner!

So the name had to be suggestive of all this. "Magnificent Obsession" Lloyd C Douglas's all time classic, Mandrake's "Xanadu" were all serious contenders for the name. Then we heard of a store called "xanadu" in Chennai. Then we (Savi, Chandra, Shankar and I) starting playing around with names of classics .... And "Oliver Twist and other tales" was born - rechristened as "twistntales" with a small "t".
It all happened one Jan afternoon in Savi's living room as we were sipping tea. "twistntales" had a musical tone to it ... had the right balance of fun and seriousness to it .... sounded nice and reflected to the "t" what i had in mind for the bookstore!