The Sunday Haul,

Conde Nast Traveller Again

Will somebody in Hyderabad please tell me why it is falling only on me (me and me alone) to pick up Condé Nast Traveller magazine at Abids on Sundays? Out of the multitudes of those who crawl the pavements at Abids so slowly as if reading each and every title on sale why does it have to be only me to spot the magazine and also buy it? No one else seems interested in buying it and sometimes it appears like I am the ‘Chosen One’ to pick up every Condé Nast Traveller magazine that is on sale at Abids. Needless to say, it has happened once again this Sunday, me finding yet another issue of Condé Nast Traveller’ of December 2009. This perhaps is the zillionth time I am finding the magazine. Not that I do not like to read it but one has to understand what it does to people like me who work for the government. I admit that there’s nothing I enjoy more on a Sunday afternoon than reading about exotic resorts, spas, etc., abroad. The problem is, of late, it has begun certain undesirable side effects on my life.

More than the feeling of amazement and wonder that reading Condé Nast Traveller always produces, a feeling of intense regret is increasingly felt. It is the regret that I can never hope to visit even a single place described in the fine magazine. What with the miserable pay I get working for the government forget about visiting the places, I cannot even afford to buy a new copy of the magazine. Nowhere does this feeling of regret weigh on me more than when I am in my small, dusty room in faraway Suryapet where the only thing I enjoy doing is getting into a bus to Hyderabad whenever I can. When I cannot do it I simply stand watching the buses go by. I guess that sums up my angst at reading Condé Nast.

However I don’t mind finding Condé Nast Traveller and also reading it but what bothers me is how many more issues do I have to pick up and read before something happens that puts a cheque for a million dollars in my hands so that I can make a round the world trip and never, never again crib about not being able to visit places like Ko Sa Mui. Jokes apart, sometimes when I see people ignore the magazine at Abids and walk away I feel only an overwhelming pity for the poor souls for they don’t know what they are missing.

The Magazine Itch

If I had my way I’d love to do nothing more than buying all the magazines on the racks in bookstores and spending days together reading them. With three mouths to feed (four, if you add mine), two houses to maintain (one at Hyderabad and one at Suryapet) surely one doesn’t expect me to splurge on new magazines especially when it is quite apparent how much I spend on books. But I am also a magazine junkie and I need my regular fix. So what I do is walk upstairs to my brother’s house and read Outlook, India Today, The Week, Outlook Traveler, Harvard Business Review and such stimulating magazines that he doesn’t have the time to read because he is busy criss-crossing the globe. For that reason Tehelka doesn’t form part of my weekly magazine reading. So when I spotted an issue (of Jan 30 2010) at Abids on Sunday with a cover story on books I picked it up.

The issue presents the results of a national readership survey done in the country. Though there is a claim of the surveyors having traveled across the country I couldn’t find Hyderabad mentioned anywhere. I am unable to understand the reasons why Hyderabad did not find a place in the survey. Perhaps they could not find Hyderabad on the map. Or maybe the Tehelka folks thought that we Hyderabadis don’t read and that the more than dozen major bookstores here were opened just for fun and not really to sell books. Or maybe the Tehelka people don’t really like Hyderabadis for some reason. Anyway I was only joking, but the survey was a fairly interesting one.

The important finding of the survey was that we Indians read books mainly for self-improvement and not for the pleasure of reading. The other important finding was that women seemed to make up only a dismal 15% of Indian readers in English, that women are less habitual readers, and that when compared to men only half as many women read poetry. It doesn’t really sound true but may be that is what they came up with in the survey. There were a few essays but they did not hold my attention. There were also observations by two booksellers, R Sriram of Crossword and Ram Advani of Ram Advani Booksellers, Lucknow who hit it on the head when he said that there is a shortage of educated booksellers.

The most interesting part was the section where a few writers talked about writing and books- Amitava Kumar, Mridula Koshy, Amitabha Bagchi, Anjum Hasan and others. A few celebrities mentioned the book that changed their lives and not one of them is worth mentioning here. But if I were to be asked about the book that changed my life, my answer would be - ‘the dictionary.’ Analyze that.


A Book

It wasn’t all mags this Sunday at Abids because I happened to pick up a book too. I bought Scott Spencer’s ‘Endless Love’ mainly because it was a Penguin book and because on the blurb it said that it was ‘soon to be a major Zeffirelli film.’ I have no idea if it was made into a movie but I got the 375 page monster for ten rupees.

Oxford Bookstore Opens in Hyderabad

No one knows when the Oxford Bookstore opened in Hyderabad. Not even the people working in the store seemed to know. When I asked one sales guy he hemmed and hawed and said maybe three or four months. Another guy at the counter said it was opened five, maybe six months back. Whatever, the happy news is that Oxford Bookstore has finally opened shop in Hyderabad. A couple of years ago I had lamented on this blog about how nice it would be if the city had one such store after I had been to their place in New Delhi. But I really don’t know from where they got the idea of opening the store on the busy Road No. 1 Banjara Hills. The store is too small and the parking space even smaller with space for just a couple of cars. The only saving grace is the trademark ‘Cha Bar’ that is on the first floor. Obviously, there weren’t any customers around when I dropped in at the store the other day. The guy at the ‘Cha Bar’ seemed so grateful that at last they had a customer that he hovered around me until I had finished drinking the last dregs of the wonderful ginger tea he so lovingly prepared for me. I felt I shouldn’t have tipped him so much because he accompanied me almost to the parking lot in the cellar muttering his thanks.

An Old Books Exhibition and Sale

If anyone has managed to read this post until this paragraph here’s the reward. There’s a sale of used books organized by the Nampally Unique Books people at the corner of the Lakdi-ka-pul traffic junction. It is at the corner of the right turn that takes one to Khairatabad. The collection is quite good but the books are pricey. I spotted Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’ that I hope to buy sometime next week.