Last Sunday was one of the most exciting I had at Abids in the many years I had browsed for books there on the pavements. Two things made it very interesting. First thing was a special visitor and the other thing was a book. The special visitor was a writer, Chandrahas Choudhury who I showed around Abids. The book was one by a writer I was desperately looking for- Patrick Leigh Fermor.
My friend Hari who had done a writing workshop along with Chandrahas Choudhury sometime last month, called me to say that Chandrahas Choudhury was in town and wanted to check out the Abids Sunday book bazaar. So that was how I ended up showing Chandrahas Choudhury around Abids last Sunday. We had chai and talked about books, travel books especially and also about his next book- Days of My China Dragon- that is coming out later this month. He told me how this book came about which is an interesting story in itself. By the end of our nearly two-hour traipse through Abids Chandrahas Choudhury picked up nearly a dozen books, of which were a couple of books I pointed out helpfully, and I picked up five books. Later Hari joined us at Mohinis at Basheerbagh where we had lunch (biryani, of course this being Hyderabad) and dispersed.
The only books I buy without a second thought are those on writing, reading, books, fountain pens. I cannot resist buying titles on these topics especially on writing which is one reason why I have almost two hundred titles on writing. So when I saw a copy of ‘Creative Writing’ by Kathryn Lindskoog, which was the first book I spotted, I picked it up.
One of the few travel writers I do not have any title with me in my collection is Patrick Leigh Fermor. Not being able to find any title by him all these years I had been collecting books was distressing to me and periodically I lament about it here. Last Sunday however I got lucky and that gap in my travel collection was closed by a slim volume I found in a pile of books selling for twenty rupees only. Had I not decided to disturb the pile I wouldn’t have spotted the Penguin 60s copy of ‘Loose As the Wind’ by Patrick Leigh Fermor lying underneath other bigger sized books. ‘Loose As the Wind’ is an extract from PLF’s ‘A Time of Gifts’ that I hope I will find somewhere very soon.
The Sunday before, I had bought a copy of ‘The Mirror’ a magazine with a fantastic cover with a seller in front of the General Post Office at Abids. Alongside was another interesting book. It was a book straight out of the 60s with a beautiful cover with ‘A Portrait of the Bombay Underworld’ by Balakrishna on it. I thought I had been foolish not to have bought it right away. Last Sunday I searched anxiously for it and luckily the book was still there in the same pile. The publisher is 'Manaktalas':Bombay' and it was published in 1966. The full name of the author is Kulamarva Balakrishna, a journalist with Free Press Journal. I bought it for fifty rupees and felt glad that I had found an interesting book about the Bombay underworld that is of historical interest.
Not long after I reached Abids and parked my two-wheeler, I spotted a book by M.F.K. Fisher with the seller in the covered lane where I leave the vehicle. I thought of picking it up but did not. Later after Chandrahas bought it after I pointed it out to him. After sometime I came across a copy of another book by M.F.K. Fisher with the title ‘Not Now But Now’ on the cover. I bought it for eighty rupees.
On the way home I stopped at Chikkadpally as usual to check out the books the handful of sellers display. I spotted a copy of ‘When the Shooting Stops…the Cutting Begins’ by Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen which was about film editing. Though I know nothing about film editing I like to read such accounts so I ended up buying this book too.
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