No matter that I’ve been going to Abids almost every Sunday to look for books at the Sunday book market for around thirty years I feel the same excitement every Sunday before I setting out to go there. It is something I cannot express properly, the feeling of anticipation about what you might find in the thousands of books arranged on the pavements of Abids. The weekly visit to Abids is the only bright spot in my otherwise boring life.
Last Sunday too I set out with the same feeling of anticipation I feel every Sunday. At Chikkadpally, my first stop before Abids, I saw a nice copy of Roget’s Thesaurus with a black cover unlike the red one I usually see, but somehow skipped buying it after the seller asked for two hundred and fifty rupees. My next stop was at Abids.
The first title I picked up was a copy of ‘Voices from the Grassroots’ by Dr.R. Balasubramaniam that seemed very interesting as it said on the blurb at the back that it is about the stories of struggle, hope etc from the lives of common people. I got it for fifty rupees only.
Sometime back I had found a book/magazine called ‘Madras Mag’ that contained essays by people living in Chennai (earlier called as Madras) about the various aspects of the city. Last Sunday I found a similar book but this was about Bengaluru (then known as Bangalore) titled ‘Multiple City: Writings on Bangalore’ edited by Aditi De. It was a Penguin title that was enough reason to buy it but since I also love Bengaluru (and plan to visit next month to attend the Bengaluru Lit Fest) I picked it up, and this book too I got for fifty rupees only.
I saw an original copy of ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ by Matt Haig in a heap of Rs.100 books with a seller. I bought it since I’ve not come across an original copy though I see plenty of pirated copies here at Abids.
The surprise of last Sunday was finding a good copy of ‘Roget’s Thesaurus’ that I picked up from another heap of Rs.50 books.
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