The Sunday Haul (on 30-07-2017)

This Sunday too it was bright and sunny which was good weather but at the same time it had me a bit worried. It means that there hasn’t been any rain for almost two weeks. Out there in the countryside farmers will suffer if there is such a long gap since freshly sown crops would suffer from moisture stress. I hope it would rain in the next few days or else we could be in real trouble.
The Sunday book bazaar at Abids never fails to amaze me with the kind of books it sends into my haul. It is truly something wonderful since I’ve managed to maintain a blog for ten long years just writing about the books I find here. Imagine how many books I must have found here! I must have bought a couple of thousand books in the ten years I’ve had this blog up here. Someday I am going to pay a wonderful tribute to the Abids Sunday book bazaar. Wait for it.

Last Sunday too I ended up with another good haul of four wonderful titles. I had thought of taking a break and not buying anything but as usual I couldn’t resist. The first title I found was ‘A Town Like Alice’ by Nevil Shute. I see several copies of this book at Abids all the time but never thought of picking it up for some reason. Last Sunday however I saw a copy with an attractive cover and picked it just to look at it. I read the back cover and realized I was missing something good so I bought it. I got it for only thirty rupees.

There are some books I buy on impulse. Sometimes they turn out to be well known titles that I was ignorant about. I saw ‘Anya’ by Susan Fromberg Schaffer, a fat volume with a battered appearance. I hesitated for some time wondering whether if it was worth buying. I couldn’t decide but ended up buying it anyway. It seemed a good book though very lengthy that sometimes puts me off. I got it for fifty rupees.

Then there was another book that had a dull, worn out cover that I spotted in a heap of books being sold for twenty rupees. It was ‘Katherine Mansfield- A Secret Life’ by Claire Tomalin. Normally I do not go for biographies as I prefer autobiographies by writers. But this title was different since the subject was a writer and the biographer was a name I had read somewhere recently. The title sounded interesting and I was really curious to know what the secret was. The book on the whole was in a good condition except that the back cover was missing altogether. Despite the missing back cover I bought the book, another fat volume of … pages. I have no idea when I am going to begin reading this book.

The last find was a real treasure. The Sunday before in a heap of ten rupee books with a seller near Bata I had found a wonderful title, ‘A Sand County Almanac’ by Aldo Leopold. Last Sunday again in the same heap I found ‘Crazy Salad’ by Nora Ephron. I haven’t read anything by Nora Ephron but know enough that she is a good writer and so I picked it up. I have already started going through this collection of twenty five essays reading one every day .

Ten Years of the Blog

Ten years ago, I started this blog by putting up the first two posts in the last week of July, 2007. The idea of beginning a blog had taken hold sometime in January in 2007. It took me six months to overcome the hesitation, nerves and also a bit of laziness to finally begin the blog. Since I had decided to start the blog no matter what I hadn’t really thought about what the blog was going to be about. I had a vague idea that I would write about books, a bit of work and a lot about Hyderabad, and whatever that would result whenever I travelled. In the rush to begin the blog it did not occur to me that I should begin with a good post and ended up posting something about the Bata stores not stocking shoe horn and about Bonalu in the very first posts! As the months and years rolled by I realized writing about the books I found at Abids is the safest thing to do along with occasional posts on other issues. Regular readers of the blog would notice that in the past couple of months I have been posting only about The Sunday Haul. It is because I am not finding the time to write about anything else though there is a lot I have to write about. I actually think one can have a blog writing exclusively about the potholes on the roads in Hyderabad.

As the countdown to the completion of ten years of the blog began sometime in May this year or so I thought I’d be overwhelmed when the end of July came around. Now, however I am not experiencing any overwhelming feeling except for a vague sort of question that is buzzing around in my mind about how I could manage to persevere with it week after week. There aren’t many people following my blog and despite this I kept on with the blog posting every Friday with unfailing regularity. I still feel that I am not writing the blog for the sake of the followers but for myself, to get something off my mind. But I am glad there are people following my blog, occasionally leaving comments and I do think of them when I do not feel like writing the Friday’s post. Anyway, I’ve just realized why I have managed to keep the blog alive for a decade.

The only reason why I have been able to sustain the blog for so long is my passion for books. There is no other reason. It helped that my passion was so strong that I wanted to share it with others. I like to think that I have been modestly successful in revealing my love for books and reading in the blog. It has been a long journey but it has been rewarding. I have made a few friends along the way, wonderful people I meet regularly. The only thing I can say is that as long as the passion burns in my heart the blog will continue. The good news is that the passion seems to be growing stronger the older I become.

Thanks, everyone and especially the forty six people following my blog.

The Sunday Haul (on 23-7-2017)

Weatherwise, last Sunday it was exactly opposite to how it was the Sunday before last. If it was cloudy, gloomy with the threat of rain looming all day the Sunday before last, it was sunny and bright last Sunday. Naturally it put me in a good mood when I set out for my weekly visit to the book bazaar at Abids. I wasn’t disappointed that none of my friends had turned up to join me on the hunt for books. Whether it was the weather or the absence of my friends I ended up with six books in the haul, one of the biggest hauls of this year so far. Of these six books four happen to be cookbooks.

The number of cookbooks I have managed to buy so far is far, far more than the number of times I’ve actually cooked anything. There must be around thirty or forty cookbooks on my shelves but so far I’ve cooked something for myself just two or three times. I do not understand why I am picking up cookbooks like they are going out of fashion but every time I see a cookbook at Abids I pick it up. Last Sunday I happened to come across four cookbooks and I bought each and every title I saw.

The first was ‘Indian Food Made Easy’ by Anjum Anand, the graceful and lovely chef. I got this title for a hundred rupees which was too expensive by my standards but somehow I did not want to let it go so I bought it. It was in a good condition and seemed totally unused. Another cookbook title I found also had a simple but beautiful cover. It was ‘Beyond Vegetarian Cooking’ which seemed to be an ISKCON title. The slim volume that I bought for only ten rupees had nearly a hundred and twenty recipes of vegetarian dishes.

The third cookbook I picked up was ‘Vegetarian Indian Cookbook’ by Kaushi N. Bhatia published sometime in the early eighties. As is usual in cookbooks this book too was divided into different sections like rice dishes, breads, sweets, vegetable dishes, salads and so on. It is a simple book of a hundred and eighty pages containing many recipes interspersed with half a dozen thick pages containing colour photographs of some dishes. Somehow I was attracted by the cover and so I picked it up paying just thirty rupees for it. The last cookbook was one I found at Chikkadpally on the way back home. It was ‘Spice & Soul’ by Shakuntala Chamala. It had such a bright and attractive cover that it stood out among the books displayed on the pavement. It seemed brand new and the seller asked for a hundred rupees for it. I hesitated for some time but in the end bought it. I felt glad picking up all these cookbooks though I don’t see any occasion in the near future of trying out some of the recipes in them.

Apart from the cookbooks I managed to find two other titles too. In the spot near Bata one of the sellers has a pile of books that he sells at ten rupees only. Normally I just glance through the titles and walk away but last Sunday for some reason I decided to sift through the haphazardly piled books. I am glad I did it because I fished out a fantastic title. I found Aldo Leopold’s ‘A Sand County Almanac’ which is a nature conservation classic. I was thrilled to find it and dumbstruck that I got it for a mere ten rupees.

The next find was with the same seller but not in the ten rupee pile. I found ‘Girl, Interrupted’ by Susanna Kaysen on a shelf. I’ve come across mention of this book but haven’t really bothered to find out more about it. The book, a memoir actually, about the author spending some time in a mental institution was published in the early nineties. I got it for forty rupees only which isn’t much.

The Sunday Haul (16-07-2017)

It is less of a Sunday when the sun remains hidden behind the clouds on an overcast day especially if leads to drizzles which dampen the mood like anything. Last Sunday was one such day when it appeared there’d be more rain than holiday cheer. However after some hesitation whether to go to Abids or not I started out on the two wheeler despite the light drizzle. I was certain the second hand book sellers would be there so as not to disappoint regular visitors like me. So when I arrived in Abids and saw that the booksellers were there at their usual places I felt glad I had come.

I had another reason to be glad for a friend joined me. As usual we sat in the Star of Asia café and whiled away a good part of an hour talking books, movies, and writers. Then later we set out on the quest for books. First I picked up two hardcover children’s books on cyclones and heatwaves that could help me in my current job. The good finds came after I bought these two books. The first find was the screenplay of ‘Pulp Fiction’ by Quentin Tarantino. I already have the screenplay of ‘Reservoir Dogs’ so finding this was a double joy. I found this book just moments after I bought another book- ‘Writing with Ease’ by Usha Pandit that I thought might come handy someday.

The last find of the day was ‘The Magic Animal: Mankind Revisited’ by Philip Wylie. I don’t remember where I had come across this name but I felt it could be a book worth picking up so I picked it up. I really have no idea about Philip Wylie till now but maybe after reading the book I might know. From the blurb on the back cover Philip Wylie seems some kind of iconoclastic writer shaking up things with his fierce writing. After I read on the back the tile of his earlier book- A Generation of Vipers- I felt that I must get hold of this book and read it. Even before I read anything by Philip Wylie I get the feeling that I am going to like his writing.

The Sunday Haul (on 9/7/2017)

I’ve got it written down somewhere in a notebook the name ‘James Salter’ that I read in an article by a writer who said that Salter was a writer’s writer or something to that effect. Since then I’ve been looking for titles by James Salter and finally last Sunday I found a title. However, this wasn’t the first title I found. A couple of months ago I had found another James Salter title. The seller quoted a too high price that I should have paid but some kind of hubris got over me and I walked away thinking no one would buy it because it was not in such a good condition and I also thought, foolishly though, that no one would have known about James Salter. The next Sunday when I searched for it I couldn’t find it. It was a stupid thing to do but somehow I do not seem to have learnt from past experience.

But last Sunday I wasn’t going to let go of ‘A Sport and A Pastime’ by James Salter that I saw the first thing at Abids. On the cover it said that it was the first paperback edition of the celebrated new underground classic. After I found this book I experienced a strange kind of high that remained with me all day. I couldn’t quite fathom why I was so elated finding this title but I felt very good. Unfortunately there was no friend with me last Sunday to share my joy since both my friends did not turn up. This was one of the two titles I picked up at the same seller. The other title was ‘Outline of American Literature’ brought out by the United States Department of State. I got both these books for fifty rupees which means the James Salter title ‘A Sport and A Pastime’ cost me just twenty five rupees.

It may sound unbelievable but one can find good books for just ten rupees at Abids. I have bought scores of books at Abids spending just ten rupees for each title. Last Sunday too in a heap of books being sold for ten rupees I found ‘The Heather Blazing’ by Colm Toibin. On the cover there was ‘PICADOR THIRTY’ printed and I wondered if this was some kind of special edition by Picador. I have to find out more about it.

The last find of the day was not at Abids but at Chikkadpally. I found another beautiful copy of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ by Dashiell Hammett. The copy I found looked brand new as if it had just come from the press. I was thrilled to find it and getting it for just fifty rupees added to the thrill. Though I have two copies of this title I couldn't resist buying this copy.
So it was another four book haul last Sunday. Somehow I felt very pleased with myself for having picked up some really good titles. However, there were a couple of books I saw but did not buy because they were beyond my reach. If I pick them up next Sunday I will write about them next Friday.

The Sunday Haul (on 2/7/2017)

The Sunday before last Sunday I had returned home from Abids empty handed. Next day happened to be Ramzan so all the regular stores were open for the last minute shoppers. It meant that all the second hand booksellers had set shop at different places other than at their usual spots on the pavement in front of the regular stores. It was a bit disconcerting and apart from it, none of my friends turned up so alone I trawled through the heaps of books laid out on the pavement and failed to find anything worth buying.

However, last Sunday it was the normal scene at Abids with the regular stores shut and the second hand booksellers back at their usual place. On top of it Jai made an appearance after a long gap. By then I had already picked up my first find- another copy of ‘Screenplay’ by Syd Field that I got for two hundred rupees. It was a new copy and though I had a copy already I picked it up. Later my two other friends joined us and we sat in the café and indulged in a long spell of conversation about books, movies, and other things. Shrikant wanted the ‘Screenplay’ and took it so that is why there is no picture of that book here.

The next find was another cookbook. I found ‘Balti’ a hardcover book in an interesting format. It had a lot of recipes of chicken, mutton, prawn dishes apart from a few recipes of a few vegetarian dishes. I picked it up for just fifty rupees. The next find was in a heap of books selling for fifty rupees. It was a copy of ‘Too Much Happiness’ by Alice Munro, the master storyteller. I don’t remember if have a copy of this title but I picked it up. It was too good a title to let go. It had the following ten stories: Dimensions, Fiction, Wenlock Edge, Deep-Holes, Free Radicals, Face, Some Women, Child’s Play, Wood, and Too Much Happiness.

I got a pleasant surprise when Jai gave me a copy of Jo Nesbo’s ‘The Redbreast.’ I had no book to give him but I told him to pick up ‘Twilight at Macs’ by Ross Thomas that we saw in a heap of books selling for only twenty rupees.

The last find was not at Abids but at Chikkadpally and it was a very interesting title that I found. I came across a copy of ‘The Picador Book of Latin American Stories’ edited by Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega. I got this wonderful title for just fifty rupees. There were thirty nine Latin American short stories in this collection. Of the thirty-nine writers I am familiar with only three names- Carlos Fuentes, and of course, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marquez. I was happy with this find and am eagerly waiting to read it.

The Sunday Haul (0n 18-06-2017)

Another rain-free morning and another three book haul was how my Sunday morning book hunt at Abids turned out to be. It was just another normal Sunday for me, apart from the fact that one member of our three-man team re-joined the team after a long gap.

The first ever full size book that I read from beginning to end was ‘The Man-Eater of Malgudi’ by RK Narayan that I finished reading in half a day during summer holidays nearly forty years ago. It was the book that got me hooked to books. I was about thirteen or fourteen years old then and over the years I managed to read almost everything that RK Narayan wrote. The only title of his I couldn’t lay my hands was ‘The Emerald Route’ that I learnt was a sort of travelogue. I wasn’t able to find it all these years despite looking for it all over. So, last Sunday when I spotted it at Abids I was very thrilled. I couldn’t believe it until I held it in my hand and looked over the book published by Vision Books. The book cost me just forty rupees.

The next title I found at Abids last Sunday was a book that was so beautiful that I decided to buy it right away without even looking at the title properly. It was a hard cover copy of ‘Somebody’s Sister’ by Derek Marlowe. The name seemed familiar and I had a hunch that it could be a good read so I bought it. It was a beautiful copy published by Book Club Associates, London and it said ‘by arrangement with Jonathan Cape.’ I found the jacket intact and not a single blemish anywhere on the book except one thing. On two of the front pages and one at the back page there was a round stamp that said ‘Lata and Rao Home Library’ but gave no indication of the place. The date written in ink inside the circle was 27/1/87 which makes it a thirty year old copy. Yet it was in perfect condition.

The third book I found was one related to another hobby of mine- crosswords- that I haven’t been following as keenly as my younger brother who regularly makes it to the Top 20 list of the Indian Crossword League held every year. Anyway, I found a copy of ‘The Daily Telegraph- How to Solve Crosswords Faster’ by May Abbott. Somehow finding this title made me think about going back to the habit of solving crosswords. Once I finish reading this book I might resume this interesting pastime.

The Sunday Haul (on 11-06-2017)

The coming of the rains and the Ramzan season changed things at the Sunday book market at Abids. For one it has become much cooler and for the first time I did not wear the cap while out at Abids. Then the usual stores were open for Ramzan shopping and so the second hand booksellers moved out of their usual spots before store fronts to other spots in Abids. Luckily, it did not rain and I wanted to take advantage of it and look keenly for titles I wanted to buy.

But last Sunday I wasn’t as lucky as I was the past few Sundays and couldn’t find a single title worth buying. However, at Chikkadpally on the way home I found a good copy of ‘The Best American Essays- 2011’ edited by Edwidge Danticat. The copy I found was almost brand new and I felt lucky to have spotted it. I got it for just sixty rupees which was a steal considering there are twenty four essays by some of the best writers in America and that were published in various publications in the year.

In the list of twenty four writers I could recognize only four names- Christopher Hitchens, Pico Iyer, Chang-Rae Lee, and Zadie Smith. The rest were names I was not familiar with. However, I am looking forward to reading all the essays in it soon. Since Sunday I’ve managed to finish reading three essays and strangely, all of them were about death. Katy Butler’s ‘What Broke My Father’s Heart’ was a candid essay about her father’s last days that had me thinking about where medicine was taking us.

The Sunday Haul (on 4-6-17)

Last Sunday at Abids I found a wonderful gem. I found a beautiful copy of ‘Signatures: One Hundred Indian Poets’ an anthology some of the best poetry by some of the best poets in all Indian languages that is edited by K. Satchidanandan. I was thrilled to spot this NBT book on the pavement while browsing for good titles to pick up. Some days the gems simply turn up before you and it was one such day when this book came into view. I picked it up the moment I saw it absolutely certain that it would contain some wonderful stuff. Nowhere can you find so many poems written by so many poets in so many languages. I got it for just fifty rupees whereas the original price of this NBT publication is seventy rupees.

I am sure anyone can get copies of this title though it was published in 2000. I felt so happy finding it that I did not bother to look carefully for other treasures that I might have found had I been attentive. I do not mind it having found just what I needed.

There are hundreds of poems by hundred poets in twenty languages in this book. Some of the poets includes those I am familiar with Dilip Chitre, Arun Kolatkar, Nissim Ezekiel, Sitakant Mahapatra, Jayanta Mahapatra, Keki Daruwallah, Sri Sri, A.K. Ramnujan, Kamala Das, Keki N. Daruwallah, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Balakrishnan Chullikad. But missing are Gieve Patel, Adil Jussawalla and others. However, there are so many poets in other languages I do not know and who I am eager to read.

This is a real treasure that I found.

The Sunday Haul (on 28-05-2017)

Overnight the weather changed in Hyderabad last week from being oppressively hot to pleasantly cool. A heavy downpour on Saturday night brought in pleasant weather on Sunday with clouds shutting out the sun. For the first time this summer I felt it not necessary to wear a cap while browsing at Abids. The pleasant Sunday morning was topped with a good haul for me that consisted of just one book but it was a mouth-watering title.

Camellia Panjabi is a familiar name in the culinary world. Though I have a fair idea about some of the good and well known culinary classics I had no idea that Camellia Panjabi authored a cookbook. The Sunday before I had spotted ’50 Great Curries of India’ by Camellia Panjabi at one of the sellers who occupies the pavement in the Hollywood shoes lane at Abids. It was a large, hard cover volume by Rupa publishers with a beautiful cover and even more beautiful pictures of mouth-watering dishes inside. I was sorely tempted to buy it right away but the price written in pencil in one of the inside pages deterred me. I put it back without even bargaining with the seller thinking I’d buy it the next Sunday.

Last Sunday however I decided to buy it after I found it after a brief but frantic search for it. I turned out to the first buyer so the seller was eager to make his first sale. I took advantage of the sentiment of the sellers about not turning away the first sale and asked for a pretty low price. I knew it was a bit unfair to take such an advantage. However, in the end I got it for a price that we both were happy with.

’50 Great Curries of India’ is aimed mainly at the British who are fascinated with Indian curries. It was worth a lot more than what I paid for the book because it had a wonderful introduction by Camellia Panjabi along with recipes for fifty mouth-watering dishes. While flipping through the pages I was stumped by a dish that was from my state. It was a chicken dish the recipe for which was given to the author by the wife of a former Chief Minister of the State when it was a combined State. Incidentally, the Institute where I am posted now happens to be named after him