The Bookfair Haul-2

Within an hour after reaching home after a long six day trip to Arunachal Pradesh I got ready to go out on another journey. This was a journey into the world of books. It was the last day of the 32nd Hyderabad National Book Fair and I did not want to miss visiting it since I had not visited after the second visit on the second day of the fair. I had picked up a total of five books on those two initial visits and I knew there were many more books I had not spotted. The visit on the last day of the book fair yielded another five titles taking the total number of books I had picked up at the 2018 Book Fair to ten. It is far less than the number of books I had bought at the book fair in the previous years but I am not complaining.

In the stall where I had picked up two titles on the earlier visit I managed to find two more titles I had not seen earlier. The first title I saw was a nice copy of Doris Lessing’s ‘Walking in the Shade’ the second volume of her autobiography. Though I do not have the first volume I picked up this copy in the hope that I would find the first volume someday. Besides, I cannot resist autobiographies of writers and so I made it the first find of the day.

In the same stall I spotted another book with a vivid cover with the title-‘The Virgin of Flames’ by Chris Abani. I have not heard or read about Chris Abani but I picked up this book solely on the strength of the blurb by Guardian on the front cover. I really hope this book is as good as it looks when I finally get around to reading it sometime soon.

Sometime earlier in the day I had come across a tweet by Uma Mahadevan Gupta who writes about books in ‘The Hindu’ where she had praised ‘Old Filth’ by Jane Gardam. Somehow the title stuck in my mind and imagine my wonder when I spotted the very book in another stall. I did not hesitate too long and picked it up. I thought it was a sort of minor miracle finding a title that someone had praised not too long ago.

Now I have been looking for a title, any title, by Elena Ferrante since long but wasn’t successful in finding them. But yesterday at the book fair I got lucky and came across an almost brand new copy of ‘The Lost Daughter’ by Elena Ferrante. I wanted to buy it whatever the price but the book seller was the friendly book seller who gave me a free pass this year also, and who reduced the price for me to a hundred and eighty rupees. I was glad at last I now have an Elena Ferrante title to read.

There are very few foodies who do not know about the famous ‘Moti Mahal’ in Delhi. It is an institution by itself because I have read about this eatery so many times that I plan to visit it on my next visit to Delhi. The butter chicken and tandoori chicken were two of the several creations of Kundan Lal Gujral who founded ‘Moti Mahal’ in Darya Ganj. I did not know that there’s a book on it until I spotted a hardcover copy of ‘Moti Mahal’s Tandoori Trail’ by Monish Gujral in a different second hand book stall at the book fair. It is an interesting book with an introduction by Uma Vasudev interspersed with photographs of Kundan Lal Gujral with various celebrities like Sam Manekshaw, Nargis, Zakir Hussain, Nehru, Indira Gandhi and others. Of course, there are several recipes of the dishes served in Moti Mahal. I felt very glad finding this unique title that was the last find of the five book haul on the last day of the 32nd Hyderabad National Book Fair.