The Sunday Haul (on 02-06-2024)

 It had rained on Friday I think and the temperatures in Hyderabad had come down to tolerable levels. On Sunday it was sunny in the morning when I left for Abids and wore the cap as a precaution. The previous Sunday I had seen a copy of ‘Hooking Up’ by Tom Wolfe with a seller I used to see on the corner of the road leading to Nampally station. I had not seen his books for a long time so I had walked over and seen ‘Hooking Up’ that I did not buy. 

Last Sunday, however, when I reached Abids the seller was nowhere to be seen. I thought it was too early as some of the sellers had yet to set up their books so to pass the time I sat in the Grand Hotel and had a leisurely cup of chai while contemplating what titles I would find later, and also making some idle plans for passing the days after my retirement next February. 

 

Half hour later I was glad to see the seller at his usual place and finding the copy of ‘Hooking Up’ by Tom Wolfe still with him I picked it up. I have his ‘The Electric Cool-Aid Acid Test’ that I found a long time ago but yet to read it. I also come across copies of his ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’ and also ‘A Man in Full’ but haven’t bought them. 

 

I had not begun my Abids circuit in the usual manner and had actually begun it the opposite way last Sunday. I went back in the opposite direction and in a lane I found a copy with the title almost invisible on the cover that however was quite attractive. When I picked it up for a closer look I discovered that it was a copy of  ‘A History of Modern Ethiopia’ by Bahru Zewde. Now, Ethiopia is one country in Africa I would love to visit especially after reading about Lalibela in Pico Iyer’s book and also after reading about Haile Selassie in ‘The Emperor of Emperors’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski. I got it for fifty rupees. It is an interesting book about the history of Ethiopia from 1855-1974 written by Bahru Zewde, a historian. I felt very pleased finding this book.

 

A few minutes after I picked up ‘Hooking Up’ I spotted a copy of ‘The India Trilogy’ by VS Naipaul, a massive tome with an attractive cover. It is a trilogy of the three books Naipaul wrote about India: ‘An Area of Darkness’, ‘India: A Wounded Civilization’ ‘India: A Million Mutinies Now’ over a period of a couple of decades. I have copies of all these books but this was a three-in-one volume running into more than thousand pages that I couldn’t resist buying especially since the introduction was by Paul Theroux. I got it for two hundred rupees.