The Sunday Haul- Surprises Galore

I’ll bet my last month’s pay that not many of us would have known about an item of news that we are used to hearing quite regularly in Hyderabad. The welcome news item is that of yet another new hotel opening in Hyderabad. But this isn’t just any other hotel but a big name hotel no less. Anyway, not until I read the latest issue of Condé Nast Traveller did I know that the Taj Faluknuma Palace is slated to open sometime this month. The first surprise was that I got to read about apna Hyderabad in a magazine I least expected to mention Hyderabad. The second surprise, in case you did not notice, was finding the latest issue (February 2010) of Condé Nast Traveller at Abids last Sunday.

For a long time after going through a lot of issues of this magazine I was convinced that it would never happen but at last the impossible has happened. Hyderabad has been mentioned in this classy travel magazine- the Condé Nast Traveller- even if it was just a two paragraph write up about what’s happening in Hyderabad, as if anybody other than Hyderabadis care. The fact that Hyderabad made it to the magazine is in itself a big surprise, at least for me. Apart from the news of the opening of the Taj Falaknuma, the other mention was about yet another place of interest- not Charminar, not Golconda, but of Paradise Hotel. I’m not complaining though because there are people in Hyderabad who can’t tell you the way to Charminar but can tell you how to get to Paradise. These are people who will not tell you the time of the day but will describe in detail the shortest way to Paradise and even will change their plans to take you there if they have nothing interesting to do or if it is meal time. This occurs if you happen to be: a) look like someone new to Hyderabad or b) look like someone who cannot make it to their own homes without the help of sign boards.

So, that was the first surprise- finding the February 2010 issue of Condé Nast Traveller. It had a delightful piece by someone called Antonia Quirke about spending time in Skyros. There was a lengthy article about Tamil Nadu. An ad for Olympus E- P1 caught my attention and I wonder when I will be able to lay my hands on a good camera. There were a lot of other articles accompanied by beautiful pictures in the magazine. This was of course in the British edition with ‘Traveller’ spelt with a double ‘l.’ The issue was slightly damaged but who cares. I went ahead and bought it for only twenty rupees. In case you’re someone in Hyderabad who has bought it for the regular price (600+ bucks) then eat your heart out or begin coming to Abids now and then.

The other pleasant surprise of the Sunday was finding a book by one of my favorite writers- Elmore Leonard. I found his novel ‘Swag’, a decent enough copy that I bought for just thirty bucks. It is one of his few novels that I don’t yet possess. The other titles that are missing from my collection of Elmore Leonard novels are: Valdez is Coming, Forty Lashes Less One, Mr Majestyk, and Gun Sights. On the cover of ‘Swag’ was a blurb by a writer who has of late made it to the news in India- Ian Rankin, who said that ‘Elmore Leonard is the crime writer’s crime writer, king of all he surveys.’ Interestingly, I had seen an Ian Rankin title that I missed buying. Next week maybe I will pick it up.

Of course, being the first Sunday of the month, there was ‘Literary Review’ to wake up to. There was Pradeep Sebastian’s tribute to JD Salinger whose death I am still not able to overcome. I’ve read ‘Catcher in the Rye’ several times and the last I read it was about six months back when I moved to another small town after a transfer. ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and Herman Raucher’s ‘Summer of 42’ are two books that I can read any number of times.

There was a new column in LR called ‘Lit by Books’ by Nirmala Lakshman. This month’s piece was on Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ that I hope to find someday at Abids. Then there was yet another surprise- a review of a book written by a blogger whose blog I read regularly. The book was ‘Chai, Chai’ by Biswanath Ghosh and the review was a positive one which reminded me that I have forgotten to buy the book. Biswanath Ghosh is a fountain pen lover which is how I came to know about his blog after reading his Sunday column that he used to write when he was working with ‘The New Indian Express.’