The Haul That Wasn’t

On most Sundays the regret of not buying all the good books I see at Abids is offset by the joy at having picked up at least one good book among them. On the Sundays I do not find anything there is a sense of disappointment. But it is difficult to explain how I feel on the Sundays when I do not buy the book that I later tell myself that I should have bought. The reasons for not buying are only a few- money and sometimes a sense of cockiness that the book will be around. Last Sunday, being the last of the month, money was the reason behind not buying the books I saw.

At Abids I get most books that do not cost more then fifty rupees at the most, and most of the books I buy do not cost more than twenty rupees on an average. When I come across books that are priced at hundred and more rupees I get second thoughts unless it is a book I must buy. Last Sunday I came across not one but four books that I wanted to buy right away but couldn’t buy even one. That’s because the seller asked for hundred rupees for each book.

The seller had two books by Amartya Sen’- ‘Poverty and Famine’, ‘The Argumentative Indian’, and also Shashi Tharoor’s ‘India’ and Robert M Pirsig’s ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ that I wanted to buy. What added to the urgency of my desire to buy these books was that the copies were almost new and original copies. I wouldn’t be able to get them anywhere at those prices. But sadly, it was the end of the month, my wallet wasn’t exactly full and I had almost another week to go before payday. So with a heavy heart I let them be. I forgot to tell the seller to keep aside the books until next Sunday. Now I wait for the next Sunday with a prayer on my lips hoping that no one would have bought those books.