The Sunday Haul

I wasn’t exactly in a position to pick up any books last Sunday at Abids since I had set my heart on buying Amitav Ghosh’s ‘Sea of Poppies’ at the book reading on Thursday later in the week. I am planning to have the book signed by Amitav Ghosh. ‘Sea of Poppies’ is priced at Rs. 599 and I have just enough in my wallet to buy that book as well as to scrape through the month. So I just wanted to take a look at the books at Abids and buy one, only one, and only if it was something I had to buy.

When I picked up the May 1989 issue of ‘Esquire’, inside I saw a write up on of my favorite writers- Peter Matthiessen. There was a picture of his enormous workshop which caught my attention. It said that his workshop in Long Island was a converted play house and it was really huge. A wide plank serving as a writing suface ran around the walls and there were papers, books and such stuff related to writing on it. There was even an ancient computer at one end. I loved the workshop and wish I could have one just like that. Matthiessen’s workshop alone is almost as big as my entire house!

Another surprise was an old, old ad for Parker pens in ‘Esquire’ that I had seen long back. It had a Parker Duofold, with the nib exposed and the cap fitted at the back, in a ready-to-write position. It was this ad that set off a longing for good fountain pens in me long back. I bought the magazine though the person asked thirty rupees for it.

I sat in ‘Light of Asia’ restaurant and flipped through the magazine while having Irani tea. This is the place where many of the booksellers of Abids gather to have tea and I see many of them at the tables. Some of them wish me and some don’t but it doesn’t bother me.

Towards the end of the browsing I saw Penelope Fitzgerald’s ‘The Bookshop’, a slim novel that I read at the back had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was only a hundred and twenty three pages long and I was getting it for just twenty rupees. The blurb at the back were impressive enough (‘ A marvelously piercing fiction’- Times Literary Supplement) to induce me to pick up the book. After all, it was only a matter of twenty rupees and also, I hadn’t read anything by Penelope Fitzgerald so far.

So that was how I ended the Sunday’s haul with a magazine and a book.