Sapna is our curator and she’s in charge of the physical store. She reads widely across non-fiction, while being partial to memoirs and books about science, nature, travel and food. She’s fond of fiction as well, but she tends to stick to crime fiction, sci-fi and fantasy. A champion of genre fiction readers who get into series rabbit holes, literary fiction is not her go-to category; she leaves this to her sister. She’s not a fan of ambiguous endings, and she tends to have strong opinions on the books she likes (and doesn’t). She spent more than a decade teaching undergraduate students, a job that she loved, but is glad to have left behind. She’s generally at the shop desk on weekend afternoons and is always ready to talk about her recent reads and what she thought of them.

Shilpa led the effort on Luna for the last four years. Today she manages the online store. She reads broadly, across fiction and non-fiction, but is more likely to pick up literary fiction than genre fiction; bleak novels or door stoppers don’t faze her, good writing is what nourishes her readerly soul. Much of her earlier professional life was spent in the world of impact investing, something she continues to be involved in. She prefers to speak through the books she helps curate for Luna and is rarely seen at the bookshop desk as that tends to tax the introvert in her.

Prasad was the first in the family to be utterly convinced, back in 2022, that the time was right for a new independent bookshop in Hyderabad. While he continues to be involved in the impact investment firm he founded over 20 years ago, he’s equally engaged in the bookshop. He’s the friendly face you see on weekend mornings. While not a voracious reader, Prasad enjoys a good crime novel, as well as Indian and international translations from time to time. He’s the person we turn to on all the non-book related issues in the bookshop (and we do tend have a lot of these). 

Sapna and Shilpa’s father, the person who gently encouraged them to read as children not by telling them to, but by simply always being seen with a book himself. Took them to a bookshop every weekend and allowed them the freedom to buy and read whatever they wanted. He now spends his weekend afternoons in the bookshop and is very much enjoying this "post-post-retirement" phase. He has no duties in the bookshop and is required only to have a good time.

Deborah is our Store Manager. Our lynchpin on weekdays, she is friendly and helpful, and runs a tight ship. Having come to us after more than 15 years in administration at ICRISAT (the international agricultural research organisation), she is in charge of our store operations, and is the primary liaison with publishers and suppliers. She manages a team of four that is responsible for back office operations, online sales, and store maintenance.