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.