The Sunday Haul (on 21/03/2021)

I had to take someone to a doctor on Sunday morning and the long wait meant I was late for my usual visit to Abids. From the doctor’s I rushed home and got ready to go to Abids. In that haste halfway to Abids I realised that I forgot to take along the cap I started to wear outdoors because the sun was growing fiercer by the day. Surprisingly somewhere near the King Koti hospital I spotted a small kiosk with some caps hanging on a stand. I stopped though I felt I wouldn’t get a nice cap but I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice, light blue cap without any garish logo on it. But there was a hitch. It was a flat cap, something I dislike. However I liked the colour and not wishing to go around Abids without a cap on my head I bought it for a hundred rupees.

The Sunday before I had seen a copy of ‘China: A History’ by John Keay that I did not buy right away. I found it at the same seller I had seen it the other Sunday. It was quite a tome with nearly 600 pages and before I bought it I had second thoughts wondering if I would ever find the time to read it. But I did not want to let it go also so I picked it up. I remember I had seen John Keay’s book on India that I decided right then to pick up whenever I see it next. I got this title for a hundred and thirty rupees.

 

A couple of years ago I had come across the name ‘Maryse Condé’ somewhere and I was so impressed by the recommendation that I noted it down in a notebook. I do not remember where I had read about Maryse Condé but last Sunday when I spotted a copy of ‘Segu’ by Maryse Condé with a beautiful cover I snapped it up. I got it for a hundred and fifty books. ‘Segu’ too was another huge tome running into nearly 500 pages and I wonder when I will get to read it.

 

Then beside the Bata store in a separate pile of books selling for twenty rupees I spotted a copy of‘Saving Agnes’ by Rachel Cusk, and also a copy of ‘I Heard the Owl Call My Name’ by Margaret Craven that I bought without a second thought because Rachel Cusk was a name I had frequently come across, and ‘I Heard the Owl Call My Name’ was a title I had read about somewhere.