The Sunday Haul (on 10-08-2025)

 

Last week it had been raining cats and dogs in Hyderabad causing much inconvenience to traffic and also me because I was worried the rain might continue to Sunday too and that I would not be able to go to Abids. Luckily it did not rain at all last Sunday though it was cloudy but no sign of rain. Praying it would not rain till afternoon when I usually finish my trip to Abids I left a little early. First I got to Chikkadpally to check out the books with the few sellers who lay out their books on the pavement.

With one seller I saw a beautiful copy of ‘The Case for India’ by Will Durant, a hardcover that was published by Strand Book Store, Mumbai and was a limited-edition copy. I loved the cover with the title in light yellow leaping at the eye of the beholder. It was slightly pricey at a hundred and fifty rupees that I did not mind paying since I have seen copies, scores of them, of ‘The Story of Philosophy’ at Abids and in second-hand bookstores in Hyderabad. This was an entirely new title by Will Durant that I was not aware of so I bought it. 

Ever since I visited Kohima in Nagaland and also Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh I have been smitten by the North East and its people. So, when I saw a copy of ‘A Resurgent Northeast: Narratives of Change’ by Ashish Kundra with the cover with pictures of three tribal men of one of the tribes in the North East I bought it right away. After buying these two books at Chikkadpally I started for Abids hoping I would not find anything interesting. 

I had read about ‘Gift from the Sea’ by Anne Morrow Lindbergh sometime back as being a good book about but never found it anywhere. Last Sunday I picked up a beautiful almost new copy of this title that I got for only twenty rupees. I wonder if it is something like ‘A Year by the Sea’ by Joan Anderson. 

I’ve never read anything by Colin McInnes though I saw a lot of his novels at Abids. But this title I found was a collection of excerpts from his stories and novels including some essays. I saw a copy of ‘Absolute MacInnes’ edited by Tony Gould in a heap of Rs.50 books and bought it. 

Earlier in previous visits I had seen copies of ‘Between the Lines’ by Kuldip Nayar, a veteran journalist in India known for his political insights into major developments. Last Sunday I saw an almost brand new copy of ‘Between the Lines’ and bought it without a second thought, and surprisingly the seller wanted only a hundred rupees for this copy.