A Midweek Haul (on 16/09/2020)

Last Thursday I had to go to the office to catch up on some important paperwork. Since there are no fixed timings I planned to finish my quickly and leave early about an hour or so after lunch. I planned to drop in at the second book sale near the Jubilee Hills police station. I had been there earlier and had picked up a couple of books. I wanted to check out if there was anything else I could buy. So after lunch and some dawdling I left at four and stopped at the sale. It was cloudy and looked like it would rain hence I decided to take a quick look and leave.

In a section that said three books for hundred rupees I hit a gold mine. I found a copy of ‘Double Indemnity’ by James M. Cain. It was almost brand new. I had earlier bought a copy of ‘Mildred Pierce’ and also a tattered copy of ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ a long time back at Abids. This was my third James M. Cain title. I was glad I found it and in fact I finished reading it yesterday. It is less than a hundred and thirty five pages and took me barely two hours to finish it.

Then I spotted a title that my heart jump. It was there, innocuous, on top of a pile of books laid around the perimeter of the table with other titles kept spine up. It was a beautiful copy of ‘All That Is’ by James Salter. I was excited as I leafed through the pages to find that all were intact and no page was missing. It was my fourth James Salter title after ‘A Sport and A Pastime’, ‘Burning the Days’ and ‘Light Years’ that was my most recent James Salter find. I was glad I had decided to stop to look at the books or else I would have missed finding this wonderful title. In fact I was getting the book for just a little over thirty rupees!

The next find in that pile was a copy of ‘The Quiet American’ by Graham Greene that I picked up though I already own a couple of copies of this title. I love everything by Graham Greene and buy all his works whenever I find them.

After I finished I realized I had spent more than an hour looking at the books. There were other titles I wanted to buy but I decided not to. I thought I would come some other time to pick them up. I realized that it had started to rain so I waited. Then I went around the store once again and spotted another title I immediately wanted to buy. It was a nice copy of ‘When a Crocodile Eats the Sun’ by Peter Godwin, a memoir set in Zimbabwe. It was for a hundred rupees but I bought it since I love memoirs, and anything even remotely connected to Africa.

I was terribly pleased about this unexpected haul and in that mood I ventured out though it was drizzling. I had put all the four books in a plastic cover that I put under the seat of my two wheeler. I thought it would be safe from the rain. Then I put my notebook, other papers, and a book I was currently reading in another plastic cover and put it in my bag. I forgot to cover the bag itself in another plastic hood that I usually carry in the bag. After I travelled some distance it began to rain very heavily. I stopped under the metro line that provided some cover. It was a heavy downpour and after waiting for some time I realized the rain wouldn’t stop. I did not want to wait until it was dark so I decided to go one despite the rain. I put on my rain coat and went into the rain. It was quite dangerous riding in the heavy rain, on the roads waterlogged. Though the traffic moved slowly there was no traffic jam. An hour later I was home totally drenched. When I took out the books my heart sank. Some of the books had got wet. I was very upset. I felt very guilty.  I had not taken enough care to protect the books. Many pages in ‘When a Crocodile Eats the Sun’ were wet. I had tears in my eyes after I saw the damage to the books. The only saving grace was that there was no damage to the James Salter book and also my notebook. My papers had some damage and also another book had moisture at the spine area.

After some time I had an idea. I took out the iron and ran it over the wet pages, page by page. It worked to some extent. The moisture dried up and the pages became dry and stiff. They all looked normal. I was able to prevent further damage but the books did not have the same shape. They looked puffed up. I felt bad but at least the pages were saved from further damage. This experience was a lesson. I decided I would do everything to prevent such a thing happening again. I will never let it repeat.