A Midweek Haul and the Sunday Haul

This habit of looking for books at Abids has become such an inseparable part of my Sunday routine that the very thought of missing it makes me extremely nervous. It doesn’t seem like a Sunday to me if I don’t appear at Abids and spend a couple of hours there. Last week I came to know that I would have to miss my visit to Abids because I had to be at the office almost half the day on Sunday till I finished my work. I was afraid I’d miss the trip to Abids because I did not have an idea when I would be able to finish the work at the office. So assuming I wouldn’t be able to make it to Abids I decided to drop in at the Best Books store at Lakdikapul on Saturday.

Sometime in January this year I had found a copy of ‘Roots’ by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan at the Oxford Bookstore stall at the Hyderabad Literary Festival in Hyderabad Public School. I haven’t read it yet and at the Best Books store I found another title by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan who had an interesting career. He was a sub-editor in Free Press Journal, worked in the state judicial service and later joined the IAS which he left after a few years and took up full time writing. He was also Chairman of the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy for seven years. It is a fascinating background. I found his ‘Yakshi’ a Penguin title that I picked up. This wasn’t the only book I picked up on Saturday. The other title I bought at the Best Books store was ‘The Nephew’ by James Purdy, again a Penguin title, which for me, is a guarantee of something good. The prices were a bit higher than what these books might sell at Abids but I bought them for a little less than two hundred rupees.

Luckily for me I was able to finish my work at the office by half past eleven on Sunday. I realized that it wasn't too late to go to Abids and rushed there hoping I’d be able to do an hour of browsing. Actually, I had spent Saturday night at the hostel in the Institute where I am working now and hadn’t had a bath. So I wanted to take a quick look around Abids and leave early for home, take a bath, have lunch and catch up on my sleep. After a fruitless search I spotted a title hidden behind another book on a shelf. I could see only the title on the spine-‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ by Alan Sillitoe. I had read somewhere about this title and had read that it was a good tale. I had thought it was a novel but it turned out to be a short story. There were altogether nine short stories in this collection: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner; Uncle Ernest; Mr Raynor the School-teacher; The Fishing-boat Picture; Noah’s Ark, On Saturday Afternoon; The Match; The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale; and The Decline and Fall of Franke Buller. I got this wonderful title for just thirty rupees.