The New Year's First Haul

Sometime on Monday I happened to drop in at a second hand bookstore which was near my office. I told myself that I’d not pick any book since I had resolved not to, and hence would only browse what was on display. I was there for quite a long time, checking out the titles most of which were uninteresting. It wasn’t until the end that I spotted a title that had me agitated and restless. It was a book by one of my favorite writers and I found myself in a dilemma. Here I was full of resolve not to buy even a single book until March while on the other side was the title beckoning me with an overpowering appeal. One of the best advices I’ve read about getting out of a dilemma was to disappear from the scene altogether. Which is what I did as I fled the bookstore without buying the book.


You’d think that solved my problem, but no. It actually increased my agony. The moment I was out of the bookstore a voice began in my head, ‘Whaaat, you’re not buying Pico Iyer’s ‘Falling Off the Map?’. It was a question that buzzed in my head all day. ‘What do you mean you have resolved not to buy any book until March? This isn’t ‘any’ book. It is one by Pico Iyer, the Pico Iyer who you trumpet all over is one of your favorite writers.’

I managed to turn a deaf ear to that voice for two days. But whenever I was near books (which is all the time because there are books everywhere in my house) the voice in my head would begin again.

‘I cannot believe that you have left that book in the bookstore. You say Pico Iyer is your favorite writer yet you don’t bother to pick up his book. Imagine, just imagine what Pico Iyer would think if he comes to know that one of his ardent readers doesn’t want to pick up his book even if it was a second hand copy. He’d stop writing altogether.’

That was what made me change my mind. If Pico Iyer stops writing altogether it would be terrible. Not that he would do it for this silly reason but I did not see the merit in my resolution not to buy any book for some time. This was Pico Iyer’s ‘Falling Off the Map’, something I’d been looking all over since a long time. It was a hard cover edition though with a faded and torn cover and very ancient looking. So off I went to the store on Thursday afternoon and picked it up for fifty rupees which was a very small price to pay for a masterpiece by Pico Iyer. I am glad I bought the book because it would have been otherwise very difficult to silence the voice inside my head.