The Sunday Haul (on 17-11-2024)

 Last Sunday I felt winter has made its appearance in Hyderabad. The sunlight in the morning felt mellow and provided a mild warmth. It felt good to be at Abids looking for titles to pick up. 

 I had read two novels by Malayatoor Ramakrishan earlier and though I found them to be average I couldn’t help picking up another title of his just for the cover. I found a copy of ‘Five Cents of Land’ by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan at one of the sellers near GPO from where I began. 

 

Of late I’ve begun to be taking an abnormal interest in history, especially history of the country and have picked up several titles about what had happened in the past. The time before Indian got independence and its aftermath are traumatic and when I found a hardcover copy of ‘Mountbatten and the Partition of India’ by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre I couldn’t resist buying it after I noticed that the previous owner had pasted newscuttings about Mahatma Gandhi, Edwina Mountbatten from English and Urdu newspapers dating back to the 1980s. He had also underlined some passages, wrote in the margins, and in one of the front pages had written ‘banned in Pakistan’. I wonder who it was as there was no name and only a signature dated 14^th July 1982 at New Delhi. I would have loved to know him.  

 

Just before leaving I walked across the road near the GPO where an old seller had a few books, a place where I earlier had found some good titles. Last Sunday I found two good titles, the first of which was a nice copy of ‘Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine’ by Tom Wolfe.

 

The second title was even more interesting. It was a copy of ‘Confessions of a Story-teller’ by Paul Gallico, and the subtitle says ‘unlocks the secrets of a writer’s mind. It is a book about the story behind the twenty stories in the book, and how he got the ideas for the stories, and also what compelled him to write them down.  

The Sunday Haul (on 10-11-2024)

No matter that I’ve been going to Abids almost every Sunday to look for books at the Sunday book market for around thirty years I feel the same excitement every Sunday before I setting out to go there. It is something I cannot express properly, the feeling of anticipation about what you might find in the thousands of books arranged on the pavements of Abids. The weekly visit to Abids is the only bright spot in my otherwise boring life. 

 

Last Sunday too I set out with the same feeling of anticipation I feel every Sunday. At Chikkadpally, my first stop before Abids, I saw a nice copy of Roget’s Thesaurus with a black cover unlike the red one I usually see, but somehow skipped buying it after the seller asked for two hundred and fifty rupees. My next stop was at Abids. 

 

The first title I picked up was a copy of ‘Voices from the Grassroots’ by Dr.R. Balasubramaniam that seemed very interesting as it said on the blurb at the back that it is about the stories of struggle, hope etc from the lives of common people. I got it for fifty rupees only. 

 

Sometime back I had found a book/magazine called ‘Madras Mag’ that contained essays by people living in Chennai (earlier called as Madras) about the various aspects of the city. Last Sunday I found a similar book but this was about Bengaluru (then known as Bangalore) titled ‘Multiple City: Writings on Bangalore’ edited by Aditi De. It was a Penguin title that was enough reason to buy it but since I also love Bengaluru (and plan to visit next month to attend the Bengaluru Lit Fest) I picked it up, and this book too I got for fifty rupees only. 

 

I saw an original copy of ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ by Matt Haig in a heap of Rs.100 books with a seller. I bought it since I’ve not come across an original copy though I see plenty of pirated copies here at Abids. 

 

The surprise of last Sunday was finding a good copy of ‘Roget’s Thesaurus’ that I picked up from another heap of Rs.50 books. 

The Sunday Haul ( 03-11-2024)

 

Winter doesn’t seem to have set in Hyderabad though it is now officially the winter season. It was bright and sunny on Sunday as I stepped out of home for the hunt for good titles in the second-hand books market at Abids, and also at Chikkadpally. 

 

As usual I started off by visiting the three booksellers at Chikkadpally. I had seen a title on Buddhism by Gail Omvedt the Sunday before that seemed to have disappeared. I couldn’t find it last Sunday too but instead found an old copy of ‘Short Stories’ by Lev Tolstoy that I got for hundred rupees. There are six stories in it and these are: Two Hussars; Yardstick; A Happy Married Life; The Death of Ivan Ilyich; The Kreutzer Sonata; and After the Ball. 

 

I got into another bus to Koti from where I took another bus to GPO, Abids. With a seller near Hotel Grand I spotted a copy of ‘The Flamingo’s Smile’ by Stephen Jay Gould, a thick Penguin title. I had read about Gould but never read anything by him so I bought this book though I was a bit hesitant to buy the bulky volume of essays. At the same time I did not want to let go of it so I bought it for a hundred and fifty rupees. It has thirty essays on various subjects. 

 

I met my friend Daniel,  and we talked about books etc over a cup of chai in the Star of India café. Later while looking at books in a lane I found a copy of ‘The Getaway’ by Jim Thompson, a beautiful and almost brand new copy. Though I felt that I have a copy of the same title and have also read it I did not want to miss buying it for I was getting it for only fifty rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 27-10-2024)

Las week it was Diwali week as preparations for the major festival have begun. The ads in the newspapers and television are screaming discounts to lure buyers. The shoppers have already begun crowding the stores as I noticed at Chikkadpally on the way to Abids. A nice book I had seen the previous Sunday and thought of buying wasn’t there and I was disappointed for not buying it the moment I saw it. I then left for Abids. 

 

At Abids, all  the shops were open, and the first of the shoppers were arriving as I went around the streets. Some sellers had to shift from their original places but they were around somewhere. More or less all the sellers were present with their books laid out on the pavements. 

 

I began from the sellers in front of the GPO. The first title I found was a nice copy of 

‘Loving’ by Henry Green. Strangely enough, sometime back I had found a copy of ‘Loving, Living; Party Going’ by Henry Green that did not seem to hold my interest when I read a few pages of the first part. So I gave it away and later regretted parting with the book. I did not want to miss this copy of ‘Loving’ by Henry Green so I bought it and got it for a hundred rupees. 

 

With another seller right next I spotted a copy of ‘Testaments Betrayed’ by Milan Kundera, and it said ‘an essay in nine parts’ which made me buy it because I love reading essays though these do not appear to be the kind of essays I like. Anyway, this too I got for a hundred rupees which seems not much to pay for this kind of book. 

 

A long time back, maybe three decades or so I had read the name Eric Sevareid somewhere that I don’t remember now. But the name remained in my memory and so when I saw a copy of ‘Not so Wild a Dream’ by Eric Sevareid I picked it up to see what it was. I hesitated before buying it because it was too long, about 516 pages but then it was in a heap of books being sole for just fifty rupees. It wasn’t a difficult decision. I picked it up rather than regret later for not picking up though it appeared like no one would buy it. 

 

This is one book that I had been waiting to read since long but the copies I saw in bookstores were all hardcover ones so when I found this paperback copy of ‘Em and the Big HOOM’ by Jerry Pinto I picked it up. This I got for eighty rupees only.