Last Sunday, since the lockdown was relaxed for shops to open, I felt there could be a possibility of the second hand booksellers making an appearance at Abids after almost two months. But next day was Ramzan and most of these sellers would be preparing to celebrate it and besides the regular stores at Abids would be open for Ramzan shopping however little it may be. All these I felt would also mean that the booksellers would not be there at Abids.
So when I went to Abids on Sunday morning there was no one except two sellers. One was just setting up shop putting pirated copies of the latest bestsellers on a wooden shelf, and another near the Head Post Office with a handful of books for children and textbooks. I was disappointed but there was one hope. On the way to Abids I had noticed at a corner of the RTC X Roads junction the usual bookseller who has his second hand books there every Sunday. It was on the other side of the road and I thought I would take a look on the way back. So I rushed there with a desperation I hadn’t felt since a long time. There were a few novels and I thought I would pick up at least one book. I saw a nice copy of ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy that was double the thickness of a brick that I picked up. Then I saw a copy of ‘If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him’ by Sheldon B. Kopp that I also picked up along with a copy of ‘Ithiyamala’ a collection of stories from Kerala published by CBT. I got all these three books for two hundred and fifty rupees.
Just before I left the seller told me he would get more books the next day since the store before which he kept his books would be closed on account of Ramzan. I decided I would drop in the next day too. So Monday morning I was out again in search of books but before stopping at RTC X Roads I decided to go up to Chikkadpally where I had seen someone selling tea before a hotel. It had been a long, long time since I had tasted tea in a hotel so I stopped there. Then on the way back I saw another seller at Chikkadpally who had a few books on the pavement. I found a nice copy of ‘Anywhere But Here’ by Mona Simpson that I decided to buy. However I did not find anything interesting with the seller at the RTC X Roads.
On Wednesday I had to go to my Institute in Jubilee Hills though we are closed due to the Lockdown until the end of the month. In the evening while returning I spotted a board that said ‘Book Sale’ near the MacDonalds outlet near the Jubilee Hills Police Station. I had crossed it by the time my mind registered it so I took a U turn and came back. Another board said each book was for Rs 100. I went in and looked around. There were a few titles worth buying but it was a beautiful copy of ‘A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr that I picked up. Only last week I had seen many tweets about this title so I bought it. It is just eighty five pages long so I managed to read it today in a couple of hours. It is a lovely book.
I am quite positive that next Sunday the second hand book sellers would be out in full strength at Abids. See you there if you are in Hyderabad.
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