A MIDWEEK HAUL, THE FIND ON SUNDAY AND A LAUNCH

ANOTHER SPENSER FIND IN A MIDWEEK HAUL

I have a strange habit. I cannot resist stopping at a bookstore if I happen to be in the vicinity. Last Wednesday I was passing through Begumpet and there was the board of ‘Frankfurt’ bookstore beckoning to me. I got down telling myself that I’d only look at the books and not, surely not, pick up another book. I was almost about to congratulate myself for not picking up a single book in the half hour that I spent looking at the thousands of books when my glance fell on Robert B Parker’s ‘Hush Money’ which was a Spenser title.

Ever since I finished reading ‘Chance’ I had decided to read all the titles in the Spenser series. I had not even started reading ‘Hugger Mugger’ that I found on the other week before I saw ‘Hush Money’ on the shelf. Rather than spend sleepless nights regretting not buying it, I decided to pick up the book though I had to shell out sixty rupees for it. With ‘Hush Money’ now I have three Robert B Parker’s Spenser novels and there are almost thirty four more to find. I want to find his ‘Perchance to Dream’ which is a sequel to Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’ because I want to read it more than anything else by Robert B Parker.

SUNDAY HAUL

After two weeks I was returning to Abids and I was rather restless. The other week I had seen Ashis Nandy’s ‘The Tao of Cricket’ but had not bought it wondering why I, a non-cricketing guy, should read the book. But I had read a few of Nandy’s essays and was impressed by his arguments and insights about a lot of things that confound me. This probably influenced my decision to pick up ‘The Tao of Cricket’ which fortunately remained unsold till then. I thought Hari too might be interested in reading it so I bought it for forty rupees.

Sunday’s other find was the May 2010 issue of ‘Conde Nast Traveller’ magazine, the British edition, that I bought for thirty rupees. There were four more issues that I did not buy hoping to pick them up next week if I do not find anything else. The issue had The Hotlist 2010 of the best new hotels in the world, lengthy pieces on Shanghai, the Amalfi Coast, Menorca and such places where I can never hope to go as long as I continue in this job. There was a small piece by Jan Morris on London and also came to know of her latest book- ‘Contact!’ I read only one article, Harriet O’ Brien’s ‘Friends in High Places’ which made me wonder if Nepal should be the next place I should visit.


LAUNCH OF 'RIVER OF SMOKE' AT HYDERABAD
I got to know the news about the launch of Amitav Ghosh’s ‘River of Smoke’ by the author only a day before the event. Luckily I was free on Tuesday evening and went for the event that took place in a beautiful ballroom at the Park that had the dimensions of an airport hangar. There was the crowd made up of the reading elite of Hyderabad among which was a top cop who I personally knew. It was the almost the same crowd that had thronged Grand Kakatiya for the launch of ‘Sea of Poppies’ three years ago. Though I did not buy a copy of ‘River of Smoke’ I bought a copy of ‘Dancing in Cambodia’ that I thought I would get signed. But I had to leave right after the reading and the interaction with Jyotirmaya Sharma.

WHAT’S NEW IN HYDERABAD

NEW CHIMPANZEE FOR HYDERABAD- ONE AMONG MANY

Those of you wondering what’s new in the Hyderabad zoo, here’s news for you. Last week the latest addition to the zoo in Hyderabad was a female chimp. It seems there were two chimpanzees in a mini-zoo at Amby Valley at Pune. After one of them died the other was feeling lonely and so Sahara India decided to gift it to Hyderabad, of all the places.

So now we have another chimpanzee in our midst as if there aren’t enough already crowding the roads of Hyderabad. But this is one unlucky chimp I feel. Imagine, like it isn’t enough misfortune already, losing one’s companion and on top of it, being sent to a place like Hyderabad,


I hope the chimpanzee feels at home in Hyderabad and doesn’t get ideas to get a driving licence.

AUDI RS5 COUPE LAUNCHED

I hear and read about Porsches, BMWs, Jaguars and other expensive car models being launched in the city but have not actually spotted any till date. Maybe because those fancy cars, quite naturally, are bought by the money bags in Jubilee Hills crowd who do not seem to drive these cars anywhere in those cars other than on the roads of Jubilee Hills.

Last week another sports car, the Audi RS 5 Couple was launched in the city. I read that the car costs about Rs 78 lakhs. And wasn’t surprised that two of them were already sold to two guys who, I am willing to bet, are residents of Jubilee Hills. I also read in the same newsitem that there are two other guys in Hyderabad who are going about in Audi cars worth more than two crores each

GETTING READY FOR THE HALEEM SEASON

There’s a sense of expectancy in the air and it is with a spring in the step that the Hyderabadi is going around these days. He is just waiting for the Ramzan season to begin to hog on Haleem. The holy month of Ramzan is barely a week away and already preparations are on at several Irani joints. Hearths are being built and banners are being tied at the joints offering the dish. I am not able to pass these places without drooling.
Another week and one can find Hyderabadis of all ages, groups, religions hogging on haleem at Irani joints in all corners of the city every evening for a month or so. Quite an irony, while the Muslim brethren fast, others seem to eat more.

LAUNCH OF ‘RIVER OF SMOKE’ IN HYDERABAD

Amitav Ghosh will be launching ‘River of Smoke’ today evening at The Park. I plan to be present at the event and maybe write about it in the next post.

THE HAUL

There aren’t many things that keep me away from browsing for books at Abids on Sundays. One of them is a fever and the other, not surprisingly, is the family. This Sunday it wasn’t a fever that kept me away from Abids but the family. To be precise, they wanted to go on a trip somewhere far from Hyderabad and that too on a Sunday. Since it had been quite a long time that I had been out of the city I agreed reluctantly and off we went to Vemulawada which is that the next post might be about.

Robert B Parker is one heck of a crime writer. I wouldn’t have known it sooner had I not packed his ‘Chance’ for the trip to Vemulawada on Sunday. I hadn’t planned to read it right away after I had picked up the book only last month. But now I am glad I did not let it remain on the shelf for ages and took it out to read last Sunday. It was so riveting that I couldn’t put it down. Normally while on trips I wouldn’t do anything other than staring out through the window at the scenery passing by but on this trip I read. All through the four hour journey to Vemulawada and again on the return trip to Hyderabad I sat reading the fantastic book. I felt like I was reading one of Elmore Leonard’s books with crackling dialogue and fast action.

After I finished reading ‘Chance’ I wanted to check out his other books in the Spenser series. I read that Robert B Parker had written in all thirty seven novels featuring Spenser, the Private Investigator. Sometime back at a bookstore I had spotted a Spenser book so no sooner had I landed at Hyderabad the first thing I did the next day was to hare off to the bookstore. I found, not one but three Spenser books- ‘The Widening Gyre,’ ‘Hugger Mugger’ and ‘Pot Shot.’ Of these, Hugger Mugger was the least priced so I picked it up though I wanted to buy all three. However eager I am I do not plan to read it right away but will allow at least a week to pass by before I take out the book and read it.

I am terribly pleased by my mongrel tastes in books because I have managed to find another great crime writer who many put in the same league as Raymond Chandler and others. Here’s what the blurbs on ‘Hugger Mugger’ say :

‘A winner… the famous dialogue is polished to a high shine…terrific’- Kirkus Reviews

‘His one-liners are so sharp you could slice salami with them. Bottomline: in the winners circle’- People

‘The snappy back-and-forth dialogue and rimshot wisecracks are here in abundance’- Chicago Tribune

Now the visits to Abids and second hand bookstore will acquire a sharper suspense, to see if I can find any Robert B Parker title featuring Spenser

What's New in Hyderabad?

Fortune Katriya Turns Eight
Even though I quit advertising long back, as a former adman I still look at advertisements and hoardings like my life depended on it. That was how I came to know last week that Fortune Katriya hotel had completed eight years of existence. I had almost forgotten the hotel existed. There are reasons for this though one being, out of sight, out of mind. Hotel FK, if you’ve been there (I haven’t been), is located somewhere inside a lane in the Somajiguda area. It appears to me like they’ve built it in such a manner that only those who really want to stay/eat at the hotel can look at it. Anyway, I am surprised eight years have passed without me stepping into it or even looking at it.

However, according to the hoarding, Fortune Katriya, as part of its eighth anniversary celebrations, has some special offers which go something like this: Max Wine at Rs 88, Max Wine & Dine at Rs 888, and Max Luxury at Rs 8888. Nothing’s suggested on the hoarding about how long this offer lasts and if one is inclined to check it out, I’d suggest searching for the hotel first.

Two More 'Eat and Run' places in Musheerabad
While on the subject of hotels I am getting the impression though not on the scale of Jubilee Hills, Musheerabad too is witnessing a kind of mushrooming of eating joints. Barely a month has passed after Grand Crown opened than two (yes, two) new eating joints are making an appearance in my neighbourhood. One is ‘Hotel Sandhya’ which is smaller than the lobby of some hotels I’ve been so and gives the impression that it isn’t some kind of a place where you spend hours over your food. You just eat and run. The other joint, more of a Irani, is in the cellar of a building almost opposite Hotel Sandhya across the road. A banner informed that chai and a few snacks are what the place offers.

Hyderabad Gets an Afternoon Newspaper
Hyderabad now has a new afternoon English newspaper called ‘Post Noon’ that is described as Hyderabad’s ‘First Compact Afternoon Newspaper’ of ‘Scribble Media’ from the Jagati Publications stable. On Thursday I saw several copies of the tabloid size paper at the newsstands and bought a copy. It was the launch issue so it is better to give it time before it develops a style. It is too early to say how the paper is though in appearance it is quite impressive. I wanted to check out the Sunday issue but couldn’t because I was out of town the whole day. But I am glad there’s another paper to read.

Er…
Sometime back in a recent post I’ve sort of jumped the gun about the reopening of ‘MR Books’ store at Abids. It seems they just opened the shutters on the day I happened to see it and got the impression that it was reopening. I was disappointed to learn that the store remains closed and not very likely to reopen in the near future. Sad.

The Sunday Haul

Unlike most people I do not wake up on Sundays feeling good all over and get out of bed feeling gung ho about everything. There are Sundays when I wake up feeling terribly anxious almost like the world is coming to an end. This feeling usually manifests on those Sundays that follows the previous Sunday when I have failed to pick up certain books at the book bazaar at Abids. Though I feel a low grade anxiety all week it peaks on Sunday morning, the hour before I leave for Abids. Last Sunday was one such Sunday.

Last Sunday I had missed buying ‘Meditations’ of Marcus Aurelius and also Rohinton Mistry’s ‘Such a Long Journey’ apart from other titles. I did not buy them because of various reasons, one of which was money. I had picked up too many books so I decided to forego these titles. But the moment I had reached home the regret began to gnaw at me and I almost went back again to pick them up. Somehow I resisted the urge with the result that the whole week I had an agonising time waiting for Sunday and also hoping it wouldn’t rain. I set out with a prayer hoping no one had picked up the books I had left behind

It did not rain last Sunday when I raced out of the house. At Chikkadpally I was relieved to find the copy of Rohinton Mistry’s ‘Such a Long Journey’ exactly where it was. I picked it up for fifty rupees only. I had planed to start reading books by the older lot of Indian writers but never quite got around to doing it. It would be a good start to begin with Rohinton Mistry’s ‘Such a Long Journey’ and in fact, I have already started the book and found it to be very interesting. More about it in another post.

Even after finding ‘Such a Long Journey’ my anxiety hadn’t entirely abated because there was ‘Meditations’ to pick up at Abids. Luckily, this too was exactly where I had last seen it. I had to shell out a hundred and twenty rupees which appears too much but when compared to all the wisdom in the book it is peanuts. Besides, it was a damn good copy without a single blemish. I was glad I found the book.

Incidentally, with ‘Meditations’ now I have three books by three wise men of yore, on negotiating life’s treacherous turns and challenges sensibly and with equanimity and courage. I have Baltasar Gracian’s ‘The Art of Worldly Wisdom’ and also Epictetus’ ‘The Art of Living’ that I try to read almost every day. There are other people like Seneca, etc whose works I haven’t yet sampled. But since now a small collection is beginning to grow, I will look out for similar books and build my collection and hopefully, also stock up on some common sense that I sorely lack.

Another good find was Samit Basu’s ‘The Simoqin Prophecies’ that is the first of the ‘Gameworld Trilogy.’ I am not very interested in this genre but after reading his column in this month’s ‘Literary Review’ in The Hindu I wanted to try out one of his books.

But the luckiest find of the day was by Uma who accompanied me to Abids. He picked up a decent copy of Haruki Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore’ for only fifty rupees. I have two copies of the book but haven’t yet read it with the intention of reading all such good books when I find some quiet time.

New Food Joints in the City of the Dumb

MORE FOOD JOINTS
This is one new restaurant in Jubilee Hills I am not going ever to crib about mainly for two reasons. The first reason is that this joint called ‘Organika,’ as the name suggests, serves organic stuff only. I am all for the organic life though it is not always possible. I read sometime last week that ‘Organika’ opened its doors a couple of weeks ago in Jubilee Hills ( I do not know where exactly in JH) offering among other things something called ‘Bubble Tea’ which is definitely something I’d like to check out if I find the time and of course, if I manage to locate in the labyrinthine roads of Jubilee Hills and provided it is still around by the time I eventually find it.

The second reason why I don’t want to crib about the opening of this new restaurant in JH is (surprise, surprise,) that a hotel opened in my own neighbourhood. A little more than a week ago a place called ‘Golden Crown Restaurant and Dum Ka Biryani’ opened on the main road. It isn’t exactly a new one since there already existed a rundown Irani joint that has now made way for Golden Crown. The name certainly evokes something of the Hyderabadi suddenness of making things clear right away. Anyway, I am happy to report that Crown is making good business since I always find it crowded with people. There’s another restaurant just across the road so I am surprised at the crowds. Maybe the food is good which means I have to check it out, which being in the neighbourhood, I feel is my bounden duty.

The Dumb Hyderabadi
There’s a lengthy post that I am contemplating doing sometime soon on how the Hyderabadis are total suckers. There have been countless instances of people being cheated by what is called the ‘attention diversion gang’ but we do not seem to have learnt our lessons. The gang members stalk people carrying large amounts of cash near banks and such places, tell the person they’ve dropped money on the road and while the greedy guy bends down to pick up the change, the gang makes off with the actual loot. It has happened so many times that one would think that one would have learnt to be more careful. But no, we Hyderabadis seem to think that each of us have to go through the experience individually before becoming alert. About a week ago I read in the papers about the security guards (!) of a cash van being duped by the gang who made off with nearly twenty lakhs. Imagine losing twenty lakhs for some loose change on the road. That is how dumb we Hyderabadis are.

THE SUNDAY HAUL & MUSINGS ON LITERARY REVIEW

When it comes to books my normally strong will crumbles like the proverbial cookie. Since a long time I’ve been promising myself that I would not pick up any more books at Abids on Sundays. But so far I haven’t been successful in keeping this promise. Every week I see some book or the other at Abids and tell myself ‘just this book/s this one time and no more’ and end up picking books like I am planning to open a library. This Sunday too it was no different. I bought a couple of books again. However I am glad because I picked up only three books though I had seen half a dozen books that I felt I should have picked up. There was Rakshanda Jalil’s translation of Saadat Hasan Manto’s stories, Jonathan Stroud’s ‘The Amulet of Samarkand’, Rohinton Mistry’s ‘Such a Long Journey,’ ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius that I held back reluctantly from buying. But I did pick up three books, two of them travelogues, by the way and the third book, a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The first travelogue that I found was Ian Frazier’s ‘Great Plains’ and the second travelogue was ‘Danziger’s Travels’ by Nick Danziger. I found these two in a new heap of books selling for twenty bucks only. I guess I got them quite cheap because Ian Frazier’s ‘Great Plains’ is a Penguin and a hardcover at that. ‘Danziger’s Travels’ was also special because it was signed by Nick Danziger himself.

The third find was Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go,’ a novel that I got for fifty rupees, a bit steep but I guess worth it. I’ve never read anything by Ishiguro though I’ve been looking for his acclaimed title ‘Remains of the Day.’ I read Pico Iyer analyse it in ‘Tropical Classical’ and since then I’ve been looking for Kazuo Ishiguro’s books. Someday I hope to find his ‘Remains of the Day.’


The Literary Review
This month’s Literary Review supplement in The Hindu produced more than the usual joy that I experience while reading it. Whether it was the wonderful interview by Ziya Us Salam on Amitav Ghosh or whether it was the anticipation of reading ‘River of Smoke’ I don’t know. Zia Us Salam’s interview was not exactly a ‘Q&A’ session but more like a discussion that revealed a lot about Ghosh and his writing in an insightful manner. Somehow it made me pleased that we have someone in our midst who writes the sort of books that not only sell well but are also considered near classics. What rang true in it was what Ghosh said about writing: Writing is a lonely process, it is a solitary pursuit, requires solitude

Then there was Samit Basu’s amusing piece about his visit to Bhutan for ‘Mountain Echoes’ the Indo-Bhutanese Literary Festival. It was a funny piece unlike the articles on such events one usually gets to read in other papers and magazines. Here was someone who found different things at the Bhutan apart from literature.

Etc.,
The other day I was browsing the net and saw on NDTV Profit channel that ‘Just Books’ was being telecast on 4 pm on Sundays and 6 pm on Saturdays. Last Sunday I watched it at four pm only to find a special episode which had Sunil Sethi talking with Amitav Ghosh. There’s going to be a lot of Ghosh in the coming days I guess. . ‘River of Smoke’ too has generated a lot of buzz already but I will wait some more time. But what I am waiting is for the Hyderabad launch, if it is going to happen.

While browsing the net I came across the interesting piece of information that Amitav Ghosh writes with a Mont Blanc. Ah, at last there’s something in common.

The Six Month Haul and Reading

These are the titles I picked up at Abids this year from the first of January to the last day of June. The six month haul adds up to forty three books. Of these, I’ve read only eight and the remaining twelve books are those I bought at various times. I’ve listed them below. As can be seen I haven’t read even half the number of books I’ve bought in the same period which is something I plan to reverse in the second half of the year.

THE SIX MONTH HAUL OF 2011

January

1. ‘Beyond the Mexique Bay’ by Aldous Huxley
2. ‘The Autograph Man’ by Zadie Smith-
3. ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Dragon Tattoo’ by Stieg Larsson
4. ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ by Joan Didion
5. ‘At Home With Books’-

February

1. ‘Lucky Man’ by Michael J. Fox
2. ‘The Almost Moon’ by Alice Sebold
3. ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ by Mohammed Hanif
4. ‘If It Is Sweet’ by Mridula Koshy
5. ‘The Liveliest Art’ by Arthur Knight
6. ‘Shining Through’ by Susan Isaacs
7. ‘Newspaper Days’ by Theodore Drieser
8. ‘Diamond Dust’ by Anita Desai

March
1. ‘The Finkler Question’ by Howard Jacobson
2. ‘Wonderland’ by Joyce Carol Oates-
3. ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ by Haruki Murakami
4. ‘This Boy’s Life’ by Tobias Wolff
5. ‘Life is Elsewhere’ by Milan Kundera
6. ‘Stephen Fry in America’ by Stephen Fry

April
1. ‘Get Carter’ Screenplay by Mark Hodges-
2. ‘The Arrangement’ by Elia Kazan-
3. ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ by Che Guevara
4. ‘The Continental Op’ by Dashiell Hammett
5. ‘Encore Provence’ by Peter Mayle
6. ‘Dave Barry’s Guide to Guys’ by Dave Barry
7. ‘Better- A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance’ byAtul Gawande
8. ‘After Dark’ by Haruki Murakami

May
1. ‘The Man in My Basement’ by Walter Mosley
2. ‘All the Pretty Horses’ by Cormac McCarthy
3. ‘Complications’ by Atul Gawande
4. ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul
5. ‘The Leopard’ by Jo Nesbo
6. ‘Perdido Station Street’ by China Mieville
7. ‘Beyond the Blue Mountains’ by Penelope Lively
8. ‘Lunatic in My Head’ by Anjum Hasan

June
1. ‘Night Train to Lisbon’ by Pascal Mercier,
2. ‘Freaky Deaky’ by Elmore Leonard
3. ‘Freedom Song’ by Amit Chaudhri
4. ‘Arabia’ by Jonathan Raban
5. ‘Out of Sight’ by Elmore Leonard
6. ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski
7. ‘Worth Dying For’ by Lee Child
8. ‘Chance’ by Robert B Parker

BOOKS I READ IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2011
1. ‘Up in Honey’s Room’ by Elmore Leonard
2. ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ by Mohammed Hanif
3. ‘Utz’ by Bruce Chatwin
4. ‘If It Is Sweet’ by Mridula Koshy
5. ‘Global Soul’ by Pico Iyer
6. ‘Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. ‘Write Away’ by Elizabeth George
8. ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid
9. ‘White Album’ by Joan Dision
10. ‘Istanbul’ by Orhan Pamuk
11. ‘Freaky Deaky’ by Elmore Loenard (nth reading)
12. ‘Complications’ by Atul Gawande
13. ‘Counsel of Strangers’ by Gouri Dange
14. ‘Out of Sight’ by Elmore Leonard
15. ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’ by Lynne Truss
16. ‘Playing With Fire’ by Gordon Ramsay
17. ‘The Cobra’s Heart’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski
18. ‘One L’ by Scott Turow
19. ‘Diamond Dust’ by Anita Desai
20. ‘Moth Smoke’ by Mohsin Hamid

Next Post on Friday- The Sunday Haul

The Sunday Haul and Other Stuff

Most Sunday mornings I set out for Abids wondering what I’d return with. As always I hope to find a good book but at the back of my mind also lurks a faint hope that I’d not find anything worth adding to my already burgeoning collection. Last Sunday, unlike other Sundays, I set out knowing beforehand what I’d come back with.

The Sunday before while picking up Lee Child’s ‘Worth Dying For’ I had seen a title in the ‘Spenser’ series by Robert B Parker but I did not buy it. I had hoped no one would buy it and this Sunday I was surprised to find the book exactly at the same place on the shelf. No one bought the book so I gladly picked it up though I had to pay for sixty rupees for it. With ‘Chance’ by Robert B Parker in the haul my collection of crime fiction has gone up by three new titles after Stieg Larrson’s ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ that I found sometime last year but haven’t yet found the time read.

In last Friday’s ‘Life’ supplement in ‘Business Line’ daily I came across an interesting column by TCA Srinivasa Raghavan called ‘Running Out of Print’ which was on bookstores, reading and books. The writer mentioned that he had read two of Manohar Shyam Joshi’s Hindi novels – ‘Raag Darbari’ and ‘Mukhya Mantri.’ But ‘Raag Darbari’ was written by Srilal Shukla, I know because I have the English translation with me. I hope someone tells TCA Srinivasa Raghavan about that mistake. Incidentally, I found ‘Raag Darbari’ one of the most hilarious and funniest books I’ve ever read. I haven’t read the original in Hindi which I am sure is better than the English translation that I read, though the translated version too is quite funny. Someday I plan to read the original version in Hindi. It is one of my long terms plans to read a couple of classics of Telugu and Hindi literature in their original language.

Waiting for Literary ReviewThere’s only a couple of days’ more for next Sunday, which being the first Sunday of the month brings with it ‘The Literary Review’ inside the folds of ‘The Hindu.’ So I wait eagerly for next Sunday morning when I would be able to read the well written reviews of the latest books, articles on writing, on classics and on forgotten books. It is something I read from top to bottom, beginning to end quite a number of times during the month until it is time for the next issue of Literary Review.

MR Books to Reopen at Abids
A couple of years ago I was posted in Hyderabad at our Headquarters which wasn’t exactly a dream posting. Of the very few things I liked about the posting was that the office was just a short walk away from Bombay Bakery and Restaurant and a second hand bookstore. I had tea at the former and afterwards browsed at the latter on afternoons when there wasn’t much work. There wasn’t much work to begin with but that is another story. MR Books is another top second hand bookseller in Hyderabad with a couple of branches in the city. The branch at Begumpet is a swank one and one that I frequent often.

At Abids, their branch was on the first floor of a small building opposite Grammar School on the busy Abids main road. It was a place I loved to drop in and browse for about an hour, sometimes picking up a great find. One of the best finds there was the Salman Rushdie- Elizabeth West edited book ‘The Vintage Book of Indian Writing’ that I got for two hundred bucks and another find was ‘Best Writing on Writing’ that also I got quite cheap. Quite suddenly the store shut down and one fine day I saw the board of ‘Bowl of China’ displayed. For those who do not know ‘Bowl of China’ is the unsuccessful twin of Hyderabad House that dot the city. Wherever there is an outlet of ‘Hyderabad House’ one can find ‘Bowl of China’ just beside it. When I saw MR had shut down I was disappointed but hoped they would reopen the store at some other place which is what the MR guys are good at. But that did not happen until last week.

Last week while passing through Abids, I saw that the place where MR once stood was again being repainted in the familiar yellow and green colors. The board of ‘Bowl of China’ was gone perhaps for good because the place never really opened. In another week I guess MR Books will reopen at Abids. Watch this space for more news.