The Sunday Haul (on 10-05-2026)

The city is becoming hotter by the day but on Sunday last there was a slight respite. It was a bit cloudy so I did not feel the heat as much as I did the days before. As usual I started off for Abids after first checking out at Chikkadpally where I did not find anything interesting. Next stop was Abids where the first find was a copy of  'The Looming Tower: Al Qaedas Road to 9/11' by Lawrence Wright. I had always wanted to know about the whole affair from start to end so when I saw this book I took it though it was slightly damaged. Maybe that is why the seller asked for only fifty rupees for it. 

The next find was another interesting book. I had recently found a title by Andre Beteille so when I saw a nice copy of 'Caste, Class and Power: Changing Patterns of Stratification in a Tanjore Village' by Andre Beteille I grabbed it. It is another addition to the growing collection of books on caste on my shelves. I plan to read all these titles someday one after the other to better understand the issue. 

 But the best find of Sunday came at the end. My eye was drawn by an attractive cover in a wide pile of books spread out on the pavement. When I picked it up I found it was a copy of 'Behind Iranian Lines: Travels Through Revolutionary Iran and the Persian Past' by John Simpson. I was so thrilled to find something about Iran that is now in the news that I felt a rush of joy holding the book in my hand. Only recently I had found another title by John Simpson whose journalism I follow. But the surprise was that I got this title for only fifty rupees!

The Sunday Haul (on 03-05-2026)

 It was probably the hottest day in Hyderabad this year. 63-year old me stepped out to go to Abids in this hot sun wearing a cap hoping I'd not faint. Anyway, it might have been very hot but I ended up with a cool haul of four wonderful titles, three of which I already have many copies of!

The first such title I found was a beautiful copy of 'Bird by Bird' by Anne Lamott that I had found quite recently. This was one of the multiple copies I have with me. I got it for a hundred rupees, a bit steep, but I couldn't resist buying it. Someone out there might deserve it from me.

Another title that is close to my heart is 'The Foreigner' by Arun Joshi especially when it is the old edition with a fantastic cover. I spotted it right away among the hundreds of books a seller had laid out on the pavement. There was a bit of damage on the right lower side with the edge of the cover and edges of a few pages appearing like having been chewed off. I got it for seventy rupees. Inside there was stamp of a Superintendent Engineer of Vizag named A.S. Kameswara Rao. 

The next title I found was something I had been looking for. It was a nice copy of 'The Twice Born: Life and Death on the Ganges' by Aatish Taseer. It was a paperback and I got it for just fifty rupees.

The last title was one I already have so when I saw it for the first time I did not buy it though I picked it up for a proper look. It was a paperback copy of 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' by Haruki Murakami. It is a memoir of his running life as well as a bit about his writing. I had found a nice hardcover copy a long time back in the MR Bookstore at Begumpet and had also found another copy sometime later. So I did not want to buy it but when I saw that it was a beautiful, short format copy that was in a good condition I bought it. I got it for a hundred rupees. It belonged to a Sharada Annamaraju and the date written in ink was 9 May 2009. 

The Sunday Haul (on 26-04-2026)

Last Sunday once again it wasn't as hot as it was a couple of Sundays ago. But it was a bit uncomfortably warm and also too bright so a cap was necessary. With cap on hand a mask covering the nose and mouth I set off for Abids. I stopped at Chikkadpally where I scored my first hit. 

Of late I have been collecting travel titles by Indian writers, and over the years have managed to find an impressive collection including titles by Bishwanath Ghosh, Dilip D'Souza, Pankaj Mishra and others. Last Sunday I found a title that I was looking for. I spotted a nice and almost new copy of 'Have Pen Will Travel' by MJ Akbar that I got for a hundred rupees. 

There are certain titles I wish to find but thought I would never find at Abids. One such book was 'The Book of Disquiet' by Fernando Pessoa that I wanted desperately to read. So last Sunday imagine my shock when I saw a copy on the pavement. I immediately grabbed it but was a bit disappointed that there was some termite damage on the back cover and the inside back pages. But the pages with the main content were intact and only the index and the last pages had the termite damage. I would never find another copy anywhere so I bought it along with another book. 

The other title was a copy of 'A Man in Love' Karl Ove Knausgaard. I haven't read anything by Knausgaard though a former office colleague told me she liked his books a lot. 'A Man in Love' is a tome and I wonder when I will be able to read it. This copy too was a bit damaged and I got these two books for just a hundred rupees. 

Some time recently, about a couple of months back I had found a Penguin edition of 'Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole here at Abids. Last Sunday I found another copy of the same title but it was a Grove Press edition with an attractive cover that I couldn't resist. 

In a sort of determination to read as much about Indian writing in English I have searched and also fond quite a few titles dealing with this topic. Last Sunday I found a copy of 'Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English' which on the cover said was a 'Student Edition' published by Karnatak University, Dharwad. I was thrilled to find that it had an essay by Prof. Meenakshi Mukherjee on Mulk Raj Anand's books. I haven't been able to find her books anywhere so finding this essay in this book was a small consolation. This I got for a hundred and fifty rupees though the binding was loose and tape was stuck to the spine to prevent the book from coming apart.