With the most awaited event of the year, the Hyderabad National Book Fair, not more than two weeks away, last Sunday I was wondering whether I should go to Abids and bring home more books. I told myself that the finding books at the Book Fair is one and finding books at Abids is another thing and thus convinced I went to Abids.
Since a long time I had been waiting to find books by Surendra Mohan Pathak, who, I’ve read, is one of the most prolific and bestselling novelist in Hindi. I had come across copies of his books translated into English but I did not buy them since I wanted to read the original ones in Hindi. Last Sunday I found two titles by him, both in Hindi. I picked up a nice copy of ‘Pyaada’ by Surendra Mohan Pathak and got it for thirty rupees. Though I can read Hindi, my second language in high school, I cannot understand some words. I have no idea what ‘Pyaada’ means but I hope to find the meaning after reading the book.
A couple of years ago I came across a copy of ‘The Burden of Democracy’ by Pratap Bhanu Mehta that I gave away to Umashankar. Last Sunday I found another copy that I immediately grabbed. I need not have been so hasty since I saw another copy of the same book. The book is something I need to read to understand the mystery that our democracy is.
The last find was a nice copy of ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ by Muriel Spark, a Penguin edition. I got it for only thirty rupees.
The friendly bookseller at Abids who gives me a free pass to the Hyderabad Book Fair every year gave me another one. Habeeb is the name and he sits in the Hollywood shoes lane with a small collection of books. Though I haven’t bought many books from him he makes it a point to give me that pass and his gesture fills me with gratitude.
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