The Sunday Haul (on 29-04-2018)

I knew it was going to be a hot day but I did not realize the temperature would be 42 degrees when I was at Abids. It was sizzling when I stepped out to look for the books on the pavements at Abids last Sunday with Uma. It was the hottest day of the season so far in Hyderabad last Sunday with the mercury touching 42˚ C making it very, very hot. Of course, we were prepared with caps and a bottle of water but being in the open for more than a few minutes wasn’t so easy. But somehow we managed to browse for more than an hour and ended up with a nice haul of four books.

I remember picking up a copy of ’Twenty One Stories’ by Graham Greene sometime back and also reading a story from it that I found in another copy of the same book that I found at Abids last Sunday. These are the stories in ‘Twenty One Stories’ by Graham Greene: The Destructors; Special Duties; The Blue Film; The Hint of an Explanation: When Greek Meets Greek; Men at Work; Alas, Poor Maling; The Case for the Defence; A Little Place off the Edgware Road; Across the Bridge; A Drive in the Country; The Innocent; The Basement Room; A Chance of Mr Lever; Brother; Jubilee; A Day Saved; I Spy; Proof Positive; The Second Death; The End of the Party.

Then with the same seller I saw a nice copy of ‘Land of Five Rivers’ by Khushwant Singh that had an attractive and colourful cover. Quite interestingly it has twenty one stories by writers from Punjab written in Punjabi (translated into English by others) and selected by Khushwant Singh. These are the stories in it:

‘A Punjab Pastorale’ by Khushwant Singh
‘Stench of Kerosene’ by Amrita Pritam
‘Lajwanti’ by Rajinder Singh Bedi
‘A Hundred Mile Race’ by Balwant Gargi
‘The Night of the Full Moon’ by Kartar Singh Duggal
'Reflections on the Golden Bed' by Mulk Raj Anand
'Hunger' by Krishen Singh Dhodi
'Gods on Trial' by Gulzar Singh Sandhu
'How Sohne Shan Once Lost His Temper' by G.D. Khosla
'The Death of Shaikh Burhanuddin' by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas
'The Mahabharata Retold' by Satindra Singh
'Tai Eesree' by Krishen Chandra
'The Blind Alley' by Gurmukh Singh Jeet
'Saadat' by Yashpal
'Soorma Singh' by Balwant Singh
'The Nuptial Bed' by Upendra Nath Ask
'Happy New Year' by Ajeet Cour
'One Passenger, Ho !' by Santokh Singh Dhir
'Breaking Point' by Usha Mahajan
'Strange New World' by Kulwant Singh Virk
'Exchange of Lunatics' by Saadat Hasan Manto

I bought these two books for hundred rupees which wasn’t much.

Then I found another cookbook by Pritam Uberoi who seems to have written quite a number of cookbooks because only recently I had found a cookbook by her at Abids. It was the ‘Indian Cookery’ by Pritam Uberoi that I found. I got this book with an attractive cover for just thirty rupees.

Then again I found yet another book on writing. Only the other Sunday I had found a copy of ‘Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Fiction’ by Janet Burroway at Abids and now I found ‘The Simon & Schuster Guide to Writing; Second Edition’ by Jeanette Harris and Donald C. Cunningham that I picked up without a second thought. It is difficult for me to resist buying books on writing though I do not know if reading the dozens of books on writing I found in the past has helped me in anyway. Though I have not been writing anything significant I have been reading books on writing quite religiously since a long, long time.