The Haul at Pune- Two Books

Last week I was in Pune on office work. Pune did not seem to have any place where second hand books were available. Of course there were posts on the net about some places but I wasn’t sure I would be able to check them out. As it happened it rained the two days I was at Pune. On the first day the training session I was attending went on until five in the evening. It was still raining but it was a light drizzle so I decided to check out one of the main streets of Pune and look for the fountain pen store I had read about on a blog. Kale Pens was the store I was looking for.

Later on the way back to the institute where I was staying the autorickshaw I was in was caught in a traffic jam. I happened to look around and saw a shop dealing in newspaper scrap. Even from that distance I could see that there were books on the shelves on the walls of the shop and I realized I might find something there. I decided to come the next day to check them out at leisure. I had the sense to find out the name of the location and I also noted a few names of stores. The store was somewhere in a place called Deepbungalow, Gokhalenagar. Luckily for me the training program ended quite early and I was able to get out of the institute. It wasn’t raining though there were dark clouds hovering above.

I managed to locate the store (Gyaneshwar Raddi, beside Canara Bank, Model Colony Branch) quite easily. There were a few dozen books and I quickly glanced at the titles feverish with anticipation. I hoped to find something good like a title I was looking for since a long time. Though I did not find what I was looking for I found a nice copy of a rare Pearl S Buck title. I hadn’t heard of ‘Mandala’ by Pearl S Buck but I picked it up anyway since it was in good condition. Next I found a nice Penguin copy of ‘Metamorphosis and Other Stories’ by Franz Kafka. I got these two titles for a hundred and fifty rupees which seemed to be not too high a price. I asked the person if there were any other stores around selling second hand books but he said he did not know. But later on I went to Pune camp and somewhere I came across another raddi store which had books on the shelves. But the shopkeeper’s assistant said it was too crowded with piles of newspaper bundles and other stuff and I couldn’t check right away. The elderly storekeeper told me to come the next day. I said I was leaving early in the morning. He checked with his assistant again but he said it was impossible. So I walked on. I guess it is in such stores in Pune that one is likely to find second hand books.