So one afternoon I get a call from a strange number. Never seen it come up on my phone before, but I decided to take the call.

It was a student of mine, from St. Joseph’s College, from about eight years ago, who is now the Community Manager of a wonderful, creative space called Kafnu, on Residency Road, in Bangalore. “ Maam, why don’t you come down and have a look at our great space. We are inviting creative people to come and host an event, any event in our space for free and so I am calling to ask you to come. First come see the space and then let your mind work on a plan.” So I walked down one afternoon after college, to see the place and was ensnared.

Srividya took me around Kafnu, which is on Residency Road, Bangalore and I walked around absolutely entranced by the place. It is a high end business centre where people come and work out of after signing up with a membership. Considering that the place is slap bang in the heart of the city, in the CBD ( Central Business District) which commands high rents, any businessman could run his office out of Kafnu at a very reasonable membership price, without the hassles of paying a rent and staff to manage his office.

So on the spot I decided, I wanted to run a book club there. I was running one called iBrowse in the Catholic Club for seven years and wanted to have a new space and newer faces to come to my book club. Plus the club member in charge was looking at charging the authors for the space and the event, which was not my idea, especially since I was running it for them, for free.

Kafnu had fallen in my lap. And with it this wonderful young woman who is really a prize organiser. Educated, polished, beautiful and very savvy, Srividya twigged onto my concept in seconds and was excited and happy to support my Book Club. “ For a few months till we get all the members we want, it is open to the public,” she said, “ but later it will be only for members,” which is fine by me.

So our first event was bringing in Priya Bala and her book called “ Secret Sauce.” The book was getting rave reviews and Priya is a well known food critic from the TOI. Who better to have as our guest author? Priya and Jayanth had put together a book with forty different iconic restaurants featured from across the country. Iconic in that they had stood the test of time with a loyal and regular clientele. They were making a huge turnover and had managed to survive inspite of the changing eating scenarios, in their hometown.

Srividya organised the seating, the coffee and tea and had ordered expensive snacks from Nossa Goa to woo the clientele, who had come for the evening and she spoke to,familiarising them about Kafnu, so people were aware of the place.

We are now on our fourth event already! Yes FOURTH and all have had, a full house and very happy and satisfied book lovers. The other authors we hosted at Kafnu were Joshua Mathew and his book “ The Last Great White Hunter” and last Saturday we had Jacqueline Colaco who showcased her brothers book -- Peter Colaco’s Bangalore. Our authors are Bangaloreans most often who always say -- if we did not get a platform like Page Turners, we would be one book wonders and no one would have read our work.

Kafnu is a great space for book lovers and if you are a book lover reading this, from Bangalore, please DO connect and come for our events. Kafnu is located in the CBD opposite Bishop Cotton’s Boys School, in a building called The Residency. It is just before Devatha Plaza with an amazing amount of parking space which is a premium in Bangalore today.

If you are a businessman looking for a central space to conduct your business meetings or even just work out of, Kafnu is the space for you. Their coffee is excellent and they have an inhouse F&B service too with their own inhouse chef. AND the plus point is you have Srividya who organises the work space to the highest possible standards.

Contact: Address: Ground Floor, The Residency 133/1 Residency Road Opposite Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560025
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 11PM Phone: 096111 43322.