A Place of Familiarity

I have always believed that some places become part of people’s stories without even trying to.

I met a couple from Roorkee who came all the way to Dehradun for their pre-wedding shoot. It made me curious, why travel for a bookstore when there are endless locations to choose from? Especially when they themselves own a cafe in Roorkee, a beautiful space they could have easily chosen instead.

But their reason was simple.

They used to come here together.

Long before wedding planning entered the picture, before responsibilities and routines settled in, this bookstore had quietly become a part of their time together. During visits to Dehradun, they would stop by, browse books, spend time, and make memories, probably without realising that one day they would return here for something as special as a pre-wedding shoot.

In a time where pre-wedding shoots are often about destinations or themes, there was something incredibly meaningful about choosing familiarity. They picked this place because it already existed in their story.

Watching them return to the same shelves, the same corners they once casually walked through, felt like witnessing something much bigger than photographs being taken. It felt like a memory coming full circle.

This also made me think about what legacy really means for a place like The English Book Depot - becoming part of people’s lives in different ways.

For this couple, the bookstore was never just a bookstore. It quietly held a part of their story.

And perhaps that is what makes places stay relevant across generations, not only what they offer, but what people attach to them over time.

Some people visit for books.

Some come back for memories. And sometimes, both become the same thing.

-Sneha

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

 Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy by Shivshankar Menon 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Shivshankar Menon gives an insider's account of the negotiations, discussions and assessments that went into the making of five pivotal choices in India's recent history. These include the decision not to use overt military force against Pakistan after 26/11; the civil nuclear deal with the United States; the border agreement with China; the response to the last months of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war; and the thinking that underlay India's No First Use nuclear policy.

Drawing on his long and distinguished career as a diplomat holding critical positions in India's external affairs ministry and in the prime minister's office, Menon considers each situation against the backdrop of India's evolving definition of her place in the changing global landscape. He brings out the history, politics and principles involved, while examining and dissecting the reasons for the outcome.

Analytical, lucid and illuminating, Choices is an unmatched insight into the intellectual heft of foreign policy decision-making by one of India's most formidable diplomatic practitioners who was actively engaged in these five defining moments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shivshankar Menon is a former Foreign Secretary of India and was National Security Advisor to prime minister Manmohan Singh. He is the author of Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy (Penguin, 2016).

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www.ebdbooks.com

Our mail order service ships books in India and Overseas

Email: sales@ebd.in, Phone: +91 135 2655192

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The Story of Birds:An Evolutionary History of the Dinosaurs That Live Among Us 

by Steve Brusatte 

ABOUT THE BOOK

'Steve Brusatte has a rare gift for bringing the distant past vividly and fascinatingly to life' - Bill Bryson 

'Soaringly brilliant' – Alice Roberts

A New Scientist and Times most anticipated book of 2026

Billions of birds share the planet with us. With their flamboyant plumage and joyous dawn serenades, many of them are impossible to miss. But how did they get here, how did they break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, and how does their legacy shape our world?

In delightfully energetic prose, expert palaeontologist Steve Brusatte takes us through their 150-million-year history, from their origins among small carnivorous dinosaurs to the 10,000-plus species that thrive today. Along the way, we meet fantastic birds from all around the world, some known only through fossils. There are elephant birds that stand as high as a basketball hoop and lay eggs as big as watermelons; demon ducks that weigh more than cows; aeroplane-sized seabirds that soar the world’s thermals; and predatory penguins the size of gorillas.

Lively, majestic and full of wonder, The Story of Birds will ensure you never see birds the same way again.

'The palaeontologist and author of the thoroughly enjoyable The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs turns his attention to our feathery friends and their deep past. Even stranger than you imagined' – The Times, 'Books to look out for in 2026'

'Dinosaurs did NOT go extinct! They are all around us, and there are more of them than ever . . . Steve Brusatte tells their amazing story with enthusiasm and brio' – Henry Gee

'Brusatte takes us on an eye-opening tour into the amazing world of birds . . . a thrilling addition to his hugely successful earlier books' – Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize-winning author of Why We Die

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Steve Brusatte is a palaeontologist on the faculty of the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He grew up in the Midwestern United States and has a BSc in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, MSc in Palaeobiology from the University of Bristol, and PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University in New York. Steve is widely recognized as one of the leading palaeontologists of his generation. He has written over one hundred and fifty peer-reviewed scientific papers during his fifteen years of research in the field, named and described over a dozen new species of dinosaurs and mammals, and led groundbreaking studies on how dinosaurs rose to dominance and went extinct, and how mammals replaced them afterwards. Among his particular research interests are the evolutionary transition between dinosaurs and birds and the rise of placental mammals, and he is a noted specialist on the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of the carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. His book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs was a Sunday Times bestseller, and he was the science consultant for Jurassic World 3.

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www.ebdbooks.com

Our mail order service ships books in India and Overseas

Email: sales@ebd.in, Phone: +91 135 2655192