The haul last Sunday at Abids was only three titles. It was the day after the festival of Bakrid and I thought there wouldn’t be many sellers as almost all of them happen Muslims. However I was surprised to see that save for just one seller all of them were present at Abids with their books. It was another wonderful morning, bright and sunny albeit a bit too warm. I did not mind it as I went along with two of my friends looking for the books. Another friend joined midway so there were four of us.
The first find happened to be two cookbooks. One was by Sanjeev Kapoor titled ‘Khana Khazana- Celebration of Indian Cookery’ that had more than a hundred recipes of dishes across the country. The other title was a Parsi cookbook titled ‘Jamva Chaloji’ by Katy Dalal that someone had wrapped the covers lovingly in a plastic jacket. This 124 page book had more than two hundred and ten recipes of Paris dishes with names like ‘Bapaiji Ni Dhansakh Ni Dar’, ‘Sali Ne Jardaloo Ma Gos’ ‘Govarsing-Ne-Gharab No-Patio’ that sounded both wonderful and mouth-watering at the same time. Both were in good condition and the Sanjeev Kapoor was a hardcover copy that I got cheap. I got them both for a total of hundred and thirty rupees. I don’t know why I picked up the Parsi cookbook but I bought it nevertheless.
The third find was in a pile of books selling for only ten rupees. I remember reading the name Emma Lathen somewhere so when I saw the name on the cover of a book in that heap I picked it up. On the cover Emma Lathen was described as ‘America’s Agatha Christie’ so knowing how Agatha Christie books are I picked up ‘Pick Up Sticks’ by Emma Lathen. The book was in a very good condition and I couldn’t believe one can find good books at such a throwaway price.
No comments:
Post a Comment