The Sunday Haul (on 14-01-2018)

Another Sunday and another visit to Abids just a few days before the ‘31st Hyderabad Book Fair’ is about to begin resulted in a few more books in the haul. The first find was a copy of ‘dust on the road; the activist writings of Mahasweta Devi.’It is a compilation of the essays and articles Mahasweta Devi has written on issues and concerns ranging from bonded laborers of Palamau to a tribute to a revolutionary. It had an introductory essay by Maitreya Ghatak.

These are the chapters in it: The Bonded Labourers of Palamau, Contract Labour, No Escape, Land and Employment, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Discrimination, Lodhas and Kherias of West Bengal, Organizations of the Rural Poor, Superstition, Casteism and Communalism etc

Another wonderful find was a copy of ‘Glimpses: The Modern Indian Short Story’ edited by Aruna Sitesh that I spotted on a shelf with another indifferent seller. ‘Glimpses’ is a collection of thirty two stories in languages edited by Aruna Sitesh. I have, over the years, managed to gather an impressive pile of Indian short story collections and ‘Glimpses’ is another good addition to this pile. These are the stories in Glimpses:
ASSAMESE: The Potion by Atulananda Goswami; The Beasts by Mamoni Raisom Goswami (Tr: Mitra Phukan)
BENGALI: ‘All for Happiness’ by Ashapurna Debi (Tr: Bhaskar Roy Barman); ‘The Heroine’ by Sunil Gangopadhyay (Tr: Bhaskar Roy Barman)
DOGRI & KASHMIRI: ‘Smoke’ by Padma Sachdev (Tr: Susheela Ambike); ‘The Metropolis’ by Harikrishna Kaul (Tr: N.P. Singh)
ENGLISH: ‘A Trip into the Jungle’ by Manoj Das; ‘A Toast to Herself’ by Raji Narasimhan
GUJARATI: ‘Sacrifice’ by Bharati Vaidya; ‘The Green Flag’ by Pannalal Patel (Tr: Sarala Jag Mohan)
HINDI: ‘The Ghost’ by Ganga Prasad Vimal (Tr: J.P. Uniyal); The Black Smoke’ by Himanshu Joshi (Tr: Shrawan Kumar); ‘The Fade-Out’ by Sitesh Aloke (Tr: Aruna Sitesh); ‘Homecoming’ by Usha Priyamvada (Tr: N.P. Singh)
KANNADA: ‘Damayanti’s Lore’ by Anupama Niranjana (Tr: Yashoda Bhat) ; ‘A Day’s Romance’ by Ranjan Bhat Tr: Yashoda Bhat)
MALAYALAM: ‘Life and Death’ by Lalithambika Antharjanam (Tr: B.K. Chandrika); ‘Shingidi Mungan’ by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Tr: late S. Velayudhan)
MARATHI: ‘Lust’ by Prabhakar Machwe; ‘The Last Chapter’ by Vijaya Rajadhyaksha (Tr: Susheela Ambike)
ORIYA: ‘Identity’ by Jagannath Prasad Das: ‘The Little Carved Box’ by Pratibha Ray (Tr:Jayanta Mahapatra)
PUNJABI: ‘This is My Cow, Sir’ by Amrita Pritam (Tr: Man Mohan Singh); ‘The Three-Walled House’ by Jasbir Bhullar (Tr: H.S. Hanspal)
SINDHI: ‘Wrong Arithmetic’ by Ishwar Chander (Tr: Shefalee Vaswani); ‘The Coward’ by Popati R. Hiranandani
TAMIL: ‘The Assaulted’ by Ashokamitran; ‘My Daughter Shobana’ by Chudamani Raghavan
TELUGU: ‘Ash Tray’ by Chaganti Tulasi (Tr: Jayasree Hariharan); ‘The Touchstone’ by Hita Sri (Tr: Srivirinchi)
URDU: ‘The Spell’ by Joginder Paul (Tr: Sudhir and Krishna Paul); ‘Used Clothes’ by Wajeda Tabassum (Tr: B.A. Farooqi)

As is my habit I flipped the front pages and came upon something written on a page that set my heart pounding with excitement. There was this inscription:
‘To Muthu,
with affection
father
Ashokamitran
Bangalore, Dec 24 , 1992’

Was it really Ashokamitran, the famous writer who has signed this copy to his son? I don’t know if he has a son called Muthu. Sure, there is a story by Ashokamitran in this collection and that’s reason enough for Ashokamitran to sign the book. I am very glad I got this copy.

Another interesting find was from a pile of Telugu books selling for only twenty rupees. I found a copy of ‘Praana Daata’ by Madhurantakam Rajaram. It is a collection of just four stories: Praanadaatha; Circus Dera; Miss Mariichika; Kumpatilo Kusumam; Sangha Jeevi. I picked up this book because I had heard a lot about Madhurantakam Rajaram and because I wanted to read a few Telugu short stories. It is a battered copy published in 1962, two years before I was born!