Weatherwise, last Sunday it was exactly opposite to how it was the Sunday before last. If it was cloudy, gloomy with the threat of rain looming all day the Sunday before last, it was sunny and bright last Sunday. Naturally it put me in a good mood when I set out for my weekly visit to the book bazaar at Abids. I wasn’t disappointed that none of my friends had turned up to join me on the hunt for books. Whether it was the weather or the absence of my friends I ended up with six books in the haul, one of the biggest hauls of this year so far. Of these six books four happen to be cookbooks.
The number of cookbooks I have managed to buy so far is far, far more than the number of times I’ve actually cooked anything. There must be around thirty or forty cookbooks on my shelves but so far I’ve cooked something for myself just two or three times. I do not understand why I am picking up cookbooks like they are going out of fashion but every time I see a cookbook at Abids I pick it up. Last Sunday I happened to come across four cookbooks and I bought each and every title I saw.
The first was ‘Indian Food Made Easy’ by Anjum Anand, the graceful and lovely chef. I got this title for a hundred rupees which was too expensive by my standards but somehow I did not want to let it go so I bought it. It was in a good condition and seemed totally unused. Another cookbook title I found also had a simple but beautiful cover. It was ‘Beyond Vegetarian Cooking’ which seemed to be an ISKCON title. The slim volume that I bought for only ten rupees had nearly a hundred and twenty recipes of vegetarian dishes.
The third cookbook I picked up was ‘Vegetarian Indian Cookbook’ by Kaushi N. Bhatia published sometime in the early eighties. As is usual in cookbooks this book too was divided into different sections like rice dishes, breads, sweets, vegetable dishes, salads and so on. It is a simple book of a hundred and eighty pages containing many recipes interspersed with half a dozen thick pages containing colour photographs of some dishes. Somehow I was attracted by the cover and so I picked it up paying just thirty rupees for it. The last cookbook was one I found at Chikkadpally on the way back home. It was ‘Spice & Soul’ by Shakuntala Chamala. It had such a bright and attractive cover that it stood out among the books displayed on the pavement. It seemed brand new and the seller asked for a hundred rupees for it. I hesitated for some time but in the end bought it. I felt glad picking up all these cookbooks though I don’t see any occasion in the near future of trying out some of the recipes in them.
Apart from the cookbooks I managed to find two other titles too. In the spot near Bata one of the sellers has a pile of books that he sells at ten rupees only. Normally I just glance through the titles and walk away but last Sunday for some reason I decided to sift through the haphazardly piled books. I am glad I did it because I fished out a fantastic title. I found Aldo Leopold’s ‘A Sand County Almanac’ which is a nature conservation classic. I was thrilled to find it and dumbstruck that I got it for a mere ten rupees.
The next find was with the same seller but not in the ten rupee pile. I found ‘Girl, Interrupted’ by Susanna Kaysen on a shelf. I’ve come across mention of this book but haven’t really bothered to find out more about it. The book, a memoir actually, about the author spending some time in a mental institution was published in the early nineties. I got it for forty rupees only which isn’t much.
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