The Sunday Haul (on 16-03-2025)

 A heatwave was notified for about five days that covered Sunday also. Accordingly, it was pretty hot on Sunday morning when I landed at Chikkadpally with a cap on my head. I had breakfast earlier at Snehitha at RTC Crossroads followed by ginger tea at a small joint where I sat and wondered how many books I would find later on the pavements at Chikkadpally as well as Abids. A few months back, in December, I was quite thrilled to find a copy of ‘The State of Africa: A History of the Continent since Independence’ by Martin Meredith during one of my visits to the Hyderabad National Book Fair. Even before I could read it, last Sunday, I came across a nice copy of ‘The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000-year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour’ by Martin Meredith sitting on the pavement. This was another addition to the titles on Africa on my bookshelf. Sometimes I get the feeling that eventually I would know everything about Africa without actually visiting the continent. 

Alongside the above book was another title that I found. I spotted a nice copy of ‘To the River’ by Olivia Laing, a name I keep reading quite often. When I read in the blurbs comparing the writing with Sebald I felt I must read it right away and so bought it. I got both these titles for three hundred rupees. Lugging these books, I made my way to Abids by bus from Chikkadpally to Koti and from there to GPO, Abids from where I began the search that ended with finding just one more book. 

I met a Twitter mutual who had called me and we sat in the Star of India café sipping chai and talking about books, life, my retired life of two weeks, as well as our children and other matters for so long that it was one in the afternoon when we parted. I had not yet completed my tour of the booksellers so I branched out into one of the lanes where I spotted a nice copy of ‘the collected short novels’ by Paul Theroux with an arresting cover that could be seen from far away. I got this book for a hundred rupees. Then back home.