The Sunday Haul (on 01-05-2022)

It isn’t even peak summer here in Hyderabad but the temperatures are hovering around 40 degrees C every day. It was no different last Sunday as I set out for Abids in the morning with a water bottle and a cap. Though it was very hot the usual crowd was present browsing the titles laid out on the pavements at Abids. I joined the crowd and was rewarded with a haul of three good titles.

A few years back, in 2015 to be exact,  I had picked up a copy of ‘Paraja’ by Gopinath Mohanty but never got around to reading it. I had kept it aside to read it during vacation period but it never happened. However, I felt glad that I had found a wonderful book and keep looking at it often wondering when I will get to read it. At Abids last Sunday this was the first title I came across, and after some hesitation, I decided to buy it even if I haven't read the first copy I had on my shelf. One doesn't come across such titles too often so buy them when you find them. 

With another seller in front of the GPO I saw a nice copy of ‘Never Far from Nowhere’ by Andrea Levy. I bought it because I had read the author’s name somewhere but nothing about her titles came to mind so I decided to take a gamble and bought for a hundred rupees. (I have forgotten to take a pic of the cover.)

I had read almost all the books that VS Naipaul wrote but the only title I hadn’t read was ‘The Masque of Africa’ that I had come across many times but was put off by the price. So when I saw this almost brand new copy with a seller at Chikkadpally I decided to buy it even though the price was a bit too high. I got it for two hundred rupees but I guess the book is worth it. Apart from being a Naipaul title it is also another addition to the growing collection of Africa titles on my shelf