The Delhi Haul

For us in the Government, depending on where one is posted, in the districts or the capital and also depending on the department one is working in, sometime or the other one has to make a trip to the national Capital. Just a year back when in a different posting I used to go to Delhi at the drop of a hat. In the five and half years that I was in that posting I must have made at least thirty or more trips to Delhi. After I got out of that department I did not travel to Delhi for more than a year. My last trip to Delhi was in January last year. After more than a year I got the opportunity to travel to that national Capital. Unlike the short trips I made earlier this time I spent five days at Delhi. Last week I was in Delhi attending a training programme in an institute near ITO. On a couple of days I went looking for books in the evenings.

My first foray was on Tuesday when I decided I’d check out Connaught Place. I went to the New Book Land on Janpath. I had read recently that it was set up by someone originally from Hyderabad. At this stall I found a copy of ‘Why I Write’ a collection of essays by Saadat Hasan Manto translated by Aakar Patel from Urdu into English. Though the price at the back was Rs… I got it for two hundred rupees. It was a new book and I was glad the Delhi haul had begun with a wonderful title. However, I couldn’t locate a second hand seller- Anil Bookstore- who is said to be somewhere near the C Block. The last time too I was unsuccessful in locating him so I gave up and went to the pen seller beside Regal cinema. He showed me a Guider that was exorbitantly priced. I opted for a Pilot that someone had gifted me earlier. I had returned it because I felt it was too light for my taste. I picked up the same pen but a cherry red colored one that I got for seven hundred and fifty rupees. It had a F nib that I got changed to a M.

Next stop was the Oxford Book Store. There were more people in the café than in the actual store looking at the books. I too went around checking out the titles but couldn’t find any worth buying. I saw a collection of stories by Naiyer Masud that I wanted to buy but didn’t. It was a thick tome and though the price was something I could afford I did not buy it because of the space it would take. Now I wonder if I had made a mistake not buying it. I do have a Naiyer Masud title that I found recently but I think I should have bought it. Anyway, that was the haul on my first outing looking for books in Delhi.

The next foray was on Thursday. On my way to visit my younger brother I stopped at Nehru Place. I had thought I’d check out Nanda’s Bookstore that I had been to on my earlier visits and maybe pick up a good title. I was surprised to find that the bookstore had closed down and something else had come up in its place. It made me quite upset when I couldn’t find one of those sellers who usually sell the books in the open. I was dejected and was preparing to leave when I spotted a tall stack of books stuck in between two stalls selling clothes. I felt like I had spotted an oasis in a desert. It was difficult to take a look at the titles since the books were so precariously stacked that if one book came loose then the whole stack would collapse. The seller, an elderly gentleman with a shock of white hair assured me he wouldn’t mind if the books fell down.
When the seller told me that I could pick any title for just fifty rupees I looked around the stack and managed to find four good titles.

The first title I found was ‘Other People’s Trades’ by Primo Levi. It was a small book and seemed a wonderful find. The next find was ‘The Condemned Playground’ by Cyril Connolly. I hesitated to buy it wondering if I’d be able to digest this high-brow stuff written by one of the foremost critics of his time. I decided to buy it and added it to my kitty. Then I went around to the back of the stack and spotted ‘Love and Summer’ by William Trevor. I remember I had picked up the same title some time ago at the Hyderabad Book Fair but I bought it anyway. I’ve read his ‘The Story of Lucy Gault’ and I did not need much convincing about buying ‘Love and Summer.’ I also have his ‘Felicia’s Journey’ that I found some time back at Abids I guess.

The last find was a copy of ‘Moon Tiger’ by Penelope Lively that the seller had to prise out from the bottom of the stack. It is a title that won Penelope Lively the Booker Prize in 1987 and that made me pick up this book. I have a few titles of Penelope Lively including a short story collection. This title completed the haul of five books I picked up at New Delhi last week. This was the second thing that made me feel glad about the trip the first being seeing my mother and my younger brother’s family.