The Sunday Haul (on 13-09-2026)

 It had rained quite heavily on the night of Saturday and well into the morning of last Sunday. I had thought the visit to Abids would be a washout due to the rain. But somehow the rain stopped by eight in the morning of Sunday though the sky was overcast. I thought I would go to Abids anyway so I left around eleven in the morning and as usual stopped at Chikkadpally where I found a title I had seen a decade ago. 

Almost a decade ago when my friend Uma used to accompany me to Abids we saw a nice copy of 'First Draft' by B.G. Verghese with a seller who was usually rude and rather mannerless. That day he wasn't there when we spotted the book and the kid who was there gave it to us for I think a hundred rupees. As we were walking away the seller came running behind us and told us to return the book. I told him we had already bought it but he was adamant that we had cheated the kid. Upset at that allegation we returned the book and walked away. Since that day I did not see a copy until last Sunday when I spotted another copy and bought it for two hundred and fifty rupees that I did not mind paying as it was a good book.

 At Abids some of the sellers were missing maybe the threat of rain kept them away. But the other sellers were there and sometime a little before I left I spotted a nice copy of 'Beyond a Boundary' by C.L.R. James. I already have a copy that I had found sometime early last year but this copy had a different cover and also looked too good to miss. So I picked it up for two hundred rupees and returned home. 

The Sunday Haul (on 06-09-2026)

The previous Sunday I had seen a nice copy of  'Why Read the Classics?' by Italo Calvino with a seller beside the Star of India cafe, that I did not buy. The reason is that I already have a copy and so did not want another one though I was strongly tempted to pick it up. That day I felt pleased with myself that I had resisted temptation and had not thrown money on buying another copy of a title I already had. However last Sunday when I noticed that the title was still on the shelf unsold I felt sadness and pity for it and decided to take it home with me. The reason I gave myself for buying was that this copy had a different cover, and an attractive one at that, than the one I had at home. 

Somehow again I ended up buying a second copy of a title that I bought recently and that I haven't yet read. A short time ago, less than a year back, I bought a copy of 'Making an Elephant: Writing from Within' by Graham Swift online, on a sale on WhatsApp group of a seller for a couple of hundred rupees I think that I thought was expensive but I justified the purchase because it was a title about writing.  Then last Sunday in a pile of books on a table with a board saying 'Rs.100' I spotted the title on the spine and took it out. When it was coming so cheap why shouldn't I buy? I told myself and took it. 

Somehow autobiographies and memoirs by writers are something I cannot resist buying especially if they haappen to be by Indian writers. When I saw a copy of 'An Unfinished Autobiography' by Indira Goswami in a heap of books selling for Rs.50 I grabbed it. I had read one title by Indira Goswami a long time back and thought I would know more about her in her autobiography. It was translated from the Assamese by P. Kotoky. 

I had been seeing this title since many years but did not buy thinking it would be of no use. But then when I opened the pages of 'A Glossary of Literary Terms' by M.H. Abrams that I saw with another seller, and read a few entries I realized that it would help me a lot in understanding literary criticism that I often read. I got it for just fifty rupees. 

I have a list of titles and writers I haven't found yet and am desperate to find. Sometimes I think I will never find them, such as 'The Palm Wine Drunkard' by Amos Tutuola, which I am sure I will never find at Abids or anywhere else. In that list was Tove Ditlevsen about whose books I read only high praise and was on my list of writers I haven't yet found. So when I saw a copy of 'Childhood, Youth, Dependency' by Tove Ditlevsen on a creaky wooden shelf with a seller near the GPO I tried not to show my excitement when I asked the seller to take the book out. The cover was a lovely one and I was ready to pay whatever the seller asked but somehow got it at a price lower than what I had expected the seller to ask. 

A lucky day for me with a few good titles in the Sunday haul. 

The Sunday Haul (on 30-08-2026)

 

Last Sunday I had an important visitor to show around Abids. It was an editor of an online newssite, who came along with two others but had a short time to look around. After a quick round of chai at Star of India we went to the Best Books store, and shortly afterwards they left. Then I began my browsing and managed to find three titles. 

The first find was an old copy of 'The Go-Between' by LP Hartley that I already have at home. But it was too good to leave behind so I picked it up for fifty rupees. I bought this Penguin edition with an interesting cover, and the copy though old was in good condition. 

After the visitors left I met another friend who is a regular at Abids but reads only Telugu books. he showed me a title that I should buy. It was a nice copy of 'Yatrasmriti' by Dasharathi Krishnama Charyulu, a renowned writer in Telangana. It is a memoir and that was made me buy it but I do not know when I will read it as I can only read Telugu slowly. 

A little later I spotted a large sized book, a copy of 'Amritha Sher Gill- Painting mein Kavitha- Haiku' a Hindi title by Dr.Neelam Varma. I bought it because it had a lot of paintings by this renowned painter. I got it for hundred rupees. 

Another interesting title I found was a copy of 'epitaph for a peach: four seasons on my family farm' by David Mas Masumoto that the previous owner wrapped in clear plastic jacket. It was a copy from the library of St.Francis College for Women, Secunderabad that I got pretty cheap. I have a few titles like this one, like Peter Mayle's 'A Year in Provence' and also 'Under the Tuscan Sun' by Frances Mayes.