The Sunday Haul (on 08-11-2015)

There are a few writers I am obsessed with and Arun Joshi happens to be one of them. I have all of his titles except for ‘The Survivors’ which is proving to be elusive. I have found ‘The Foreigner’ ‘The Apprentice’ ‘The Last Labyrinth’ ‘The City and The River’ and also ‘The Strange Case of Billy Biswas’ and I have read all of them. Of all these titles ‘The City and The River’ is my least favourite novel by Arun Joshi. Somehow I did not like it as much as I liked his other titles. However, whenever I come across any of these titles I make it a point to pick them up. In this manner I have gathered multiple copies of all the above titles except ‘The City and The River’ of which I had only one copy. Last Sunday I found another copy.

Because Diwali was only a day away the shops at Abids were open on Sunday which meant that the sellers of second hand books on the pavements at Abids were not at their usual places. However, some of them who have their regular places not on pavements before the stores were there at their usual places. It was at one such seller who has his regular spot near the GPO that I saw ‘The City and The River’ by Arun Joshi. I was thrilled to find that it was an original edition published in 2000. It was a hardcover copy with the jacket intact. However it was not in a pristine condition and there was some damage on the front as well as at the back though the pages inside were intact. I did not think the damage in no way affected the value of the book so I picked it up. I got it for just sixty rupees.

The only title by Arun Joshi that I do not have is his short story collection- The Survivors. It is proving to be elusive though I have my eyes peeled for it and hungrily look for it wherever I go. I am sure I will find it at Abids itself because it was at Abids that I have found all the copies of Arun Joshi’s novels apart from the copies I bought at second hand bookstores in Hyderabad and elsewhere.