On Sundays especially, wherever I am, I like to go looking for books and bookstores. It is what I do on Sundays in Hyderabad where I live. The Sunday before this I was in Delhi on way to Nainital to attend a training course. After a quick breakfast at Telangana Bhavan where I was staying I left for Darya Ganj in order to be there by half past nine. I had been to Darya Ganj so long ago in the past that I had forgotten what it looked like. Of course, I was bursting with eager anticipation about what I would find at this market that I had read so much about.
Within the first minute I spotted a great title. A little explosion of delight went off inside me when my eyes read the title of the very first book I saw at Darya Ganj. It was a copy of ‘The War Against Cliché’ by Martin Amis that was on the top of a heap of books selling for fifty rupees only. Holding the book in my hands I couldn’t believe my luck at finding this title that I had read about long, long back when I was just starting off book collecting. This find was a real treasure because when I looked at the contents page I noticed that there was a piece on Elmore Leonard!
The next finds came soon enough with another seller. I found a good copy of ‘Everywhere I Look’ by Helen Garner whose ‘Monkey Fever’ I had picked up on a hunch and had read only to become a fan of Helen Garner’s writing. ‘Everywhere I Look’ is my second Helen Garner title and I am terribly pleased I found this collections of essays by her.
Immediately beside it was a copy of ‘Our Story Begins’ by Tobias Wolff that I hesitated to buy. I had set myself a limit of only three books to buy and if I found better books then what? So I decided to buy it later if I did not find better titles. However, when I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Father’s Friend and Other Stories’ by Ashokamitran I was tempted to buy it. Ashokamitran’s style never fails to enthral me with its simplicity and lucidity so I did not hesitate before buying it for a hundred rupees.
The next find with another seller was a good copy of ‘Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer that I had read somewhere was connected with books. This got me interested in the book and so I picked up this title too. It did not come cheap at hundred rupees. I bought this book in place of Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird by Bird’ that was right next to it and that I now think I should have also bought though I have two copies of this title at home. Later I went back and picked up the Tobias Wolff title.
After that five book haul at Darya Ganj on Sunday morning I thought I wouldn’t find any more books since I had not only exceeded my limit of two books but I wasn’t going anywhere near books for some time. However, later in the evening I strolled across to Connaught Place to gawk, and I stumbled across a book seller I had tried to locate on an earlier visit to Delhi sometime last year. I spotted ‘Anil Book Corner’ below a large bright board of ‘Tonino’ that I guessed could be another fancy eating joint. I saw a copy of Arun Joshi’s ‘The Apprentice’ that I was tempted to buy but when I saw a copy of ‘Brother, I’m Dying’ by Edwidge Danticat I gave up the idea and bought Danticat’s book instead. Sometime last year I had come across an Edwidge Danticat title at Abids that I foolishly believed would be around the next Sunday and did not buy it right away. When I went to look for the next Sunday it wasn’t, obviously, there and which made me feel like jumping into a well had there been one at Abids.
One day while wandering around the main roads of Nainital sometime last week I came across a bookstore whose name I am not able to recollect now. I went inside and saw a few Hindi titles that I looked at closely. I became suddenly excited when I saw a copy of ‘Kitne Pakistan’ by Kamleshwar which was a title I had jotted down after reading about it somewhere. I also saw the original Hindi version of ‘Raag Darbari’ by Shrilal Shukla. I was torn between these two title- which to buy? Obviously I couldn’t buy both of them though I wanted to. I had read the English version of ‘Raag Darbari’ and since it had been my plan to read it in Hindi I opted for ‘Raag Darbari’ and left behind ‘Kitne Pakistan’ promising myself that I would buy it when I come across it again.
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