The weather in Hyderabad is slowly getting warmer as if indicating that summer was round the corner. I had my cap on and rushed to Abids as Hari had said we’d meet and do a sort of heritage walk. By the time he came I had already picked up a copy of ‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain that I had seen the previous Sunday and had waited to see if anyone would pick it up. Since no one seemed interested in it I took it though I already have a copy with the original cover. I got it for only fifty rupees.
Then after Hari came, we had a cup of chai at Grand before setting off in the direction of The Golden Threshold’ that I already had told him was razed to the ground. He took some pictures of all the places we saw, and he gave away a carton of books to one of the sellers. I had also spotted a copy of ‘Embers’ by Sandor Marai that was for fifty rupees only but since I already had a copy of it I did not take buy though now I think I should have.
After Hari left, I looked around for some time and crossed to the other side of the road leading to Nampally railway station to look at the books of the lone seller in the corner who looks lost. He had some good titles but I picked up only one title- ‘Distrust that Particular Flavor’ by William Gibson that had the sub-title ‘Encounters with a Future That’s Already Here’ which is what made me pick it up other than the fact that it was a Penguin Viking title. I paid two hundred rupees for it.
On the way back I stopped at Chikkadpally and picked up a beautiful The Modern Library Classics edition of ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy that was thicker than a brick. I already have a copy of it that I wanted to read but it isn’t attractive as the copy I found last Sunday. Coincidentally just the day before I had read about Tolstoy and his ‘War and Peace’ in Somerset Maugham’s ‘Ten Authors and their Novels’. Someday soon I am going to begin reading this copy that seems too good to give away or just keep on the shelf without reading.
