The Sunday Haul

Last Sunday was one with a difference, made special when Jai and his family joined us at Abids to look for books. I saw their daughter ‘Mamun’ , a cute little girl, for the first time. I like it when kids search on their own for books to read. She bought more books than all five of us put together, and she is in the kindergarten! It makes me wonder how many books she will read by the time she reaches college. Later we five (Jai, Shruti, Mamun, Uma, Srikanth and me) went to the Taj Mahal where we had coffee and Mamun enjoyed ice cream. I wish they would come often.

There was another reason I was glad last Sunday. My first haul was VS Naipaul’s ‘Half a Life’ that I got for only thirty rupees. It was a good copy and I was surprised when the seller offered it to me for thirty rupees though he had pencilled 50/ on the back.
Another find was a book I had seen last Sunday but hadn’t picked up. I had seen DB Mokashi’s ‘Farewell to the Gods’ which was a small and slim book not more than 130 pages. On the cover the blurb said ‘An Outstanding Marathi Novel’ translated by Pramod Kale but I did not buy it the first time though it was only ten rupees. Last Sunday I took it.

The last buy was Joseph Conrad’s ‘The Heart of Darkness’ that I was told by my friends had been at the same place for weeks. I do not know how I missed it but I bought it. This edition had notes and references that might help me know more about this famous title. It did not come cheap though, I had to pay sixty rupees for it. Incidentally, with this haul, my haul of 2014 so far reaches 102 books.