The Sunday Haul (on 20-01-2019)

The Sunday before last I was in Chennai where I managed a decent haul of ten titles that did not seem to have prevented me from going to Abids last Sunday. The weather in Chennai (or anywhere else, for that matter) is nothing like the beautiful weather in Hyderabad, I once again realized. It was sunny, warm and bright last Sunday as I went around the book bazaar in Abids picking up four wonderful titles.

The first title I found was a nice copy of ‘Husband of a Fanatic’ by Amitava Kumar, a Penguin title published in 2004. I had read several essays by Amitava Kumar but none of his books so finding this book was a stroke of luck. I got this copy for eighty rupees.

The next find was a beautiful copy of ‘Nine Faces of Kenya’ by Elspeth Huxley that runs into nearly four hundred and fifty pages. I hesitated long before finally deciding to buy it because in no other single book would I find so much written about by Kenya by so many writers. It is in fact a treasure trove of writing about Kenya. After I saw the contents page and also read the introduction I realized that the anthology is divided into nine parts: Exploration, Travel, Settlers, Wars, Environment, Wildlife, Hunting, Lifestyles, Legend and Poetry being the last of the nine parts hence the ‘Nine Faces’ in the title. I am glad I found this book because I would get to read about another country in Africa that I am somehow drawn to.

I already possess three copies of ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian which is one of the best books by a bibliophile. Of the three copies I have two are new copies I had bought in bookstores and one is a used copy that I found recently. Somehow I cannot resist buying this wonderful book and so when I saw another nice copy of ‘The Groaning Shelf’ by Pradeep Sebastian with one of the sellers at Abids I bought it. This was the last find at Abids.

The last find of the day was at the RTC Crossroads where a seller has a few hundred books, mostly books for the Civil Services but some of them are novels and such stuff. In a pile with a ‘Rs 20’ board I spotted a copy of ‘The Naked Triangle’ by Balwant Gargi. This was a title I remember fromthe days when I was appearing for the competitive exams and there was a multiple choice question about the author of ‘The Naked Triangle’ and I was able to guess correctly. I found the actual book, nearly two and half decades later.