The Sunday Haul at Coimbatore (on 26.03.2023)

Since the past couple of years I’m being sent to Ooty to coordinate trekking of Officer Trainees undergoing Foundation Course at our Institute. I had been to Ooty only last November-December and last week again I had to go to Ooty in preparation of the trek. Last Sunday I was in Coimbatore for a couple of hours on the way back to Hyderabad. Since I had a few hours before the flight in the evening I decided to check out the second-hand bookstores that the cab driver told me about when I asked him. 

 

In Eswaran Kovil street in the Townhall area near the Coimbatore Railway station I saw about half a dozen small stalls each filled with hundreds of books mainly text books but a few had old novels also. I was pretty excited seeing these stalls as I usually spend my Sunday mornings looking for books at the Abids second hand book bazaar. I found a copy of ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ by Patrick McCabe for fifty rupees at one stall. 

Another title I picked up was a copy of ‘Star of the Sea’ by Joseph O’Connor that I got for a hundred and twenty rupees. It was a bit too high a price but I couldn’t resist it. Another reason was that I wanted something to read while waiting at the airport for the flight that was a couple of hours away. 

Now I regret not buying the Alice Munro collection I saw at another stall just because the seller asked a very high price and couldn’t reduce the price. 

 

But I am terribly pleased that I did not miss the Sunday Haul though it wasn’t at Abids in Hyderabad. 

The Sunday Haul (on 12-03-2023)

 However it is the rest of the week, on Sunday I am at my luckiest best. I found four wonderful titles that left me feeling on top of the world. The first title I found was a copy of ‘Bike Ride’ by Anne Mustoe that was obviously a travel title, an account of a trip by a middle-aged woman on a bike to several countries including India. Naturally, I was compelled to buy it since I cannot resist any travel title. 

The next title that I found also turned out to be a travel title but a different kind of travel title, the type I like very much. I spotted a beautiful copy of ‘Out of Poverty’ by John Stackhouse, a Penguin title that I picked up without hesitating a moment. It is about the lives of the poor in different countries and how they go about their lives. The copy I found seemed to have an interesting journey. The original price according to the sticker is Rs.395, and the price on another sticker of Blossom Book House of Bengaluru is Rs.250. I got it for Rs.100!

I like to find and read all the titles by William Trevor, a writer I am in awe of because of the stories he narrates in a language that is unmatched. I have ‘Love in Summer’ but last Sunday I spotted a copy of ‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor that I almost missed. I got this title also for a hundred rupees. 

Only a few days back when I saw a Tweet about Thomas Bernhard’s titles and how good a writer he was I wondered when I would find his books, and certainly didn’t expect it to find one in Hyderabad at least not a second hand copy. But that’s exactly what happened last Sunday making me feel that I was one lucky bibliophile. On the way back from Abids I usually stop at the three sellers at Chikkadpally and last Sunday I almost did not stop because I had bought three titles at Abids, also I was getting late for lunch as my family would be waiting for me. But I thought I’d stop for a moment and take a quick look at one of the sellers. This was one lucky decision since I spotted a copy of ‘Gargoyles’ by Thomas Bernhard, my heart almost stopping when I saw the name ‘Thomas Bernhard’ on the cover. It was an unbelievable find and to top it the copy was a brand new one that I got for just a hundred rupees. I couldn’t wait to get home to take a good look at it. 

The Sunday Haul (on 05-03-2023)

On Sundays my routine remains the same. I visit Abids after breakfast at home to look for books laid out on the pavements every Sunday. Like all Sundays it was the same this time too and as usual I came home with a handful of books. I found three nice titles last Sunday at Abids and these are the ones. 

 

At a seller who stocks used books that look almost new and that too some latest titles I found two wonderful titles. The first was a copy of ‘Modern African Stories’ edited by Charles R. Larson that was in mint condition. Somehow, I feel that I already have a copy of this title but I bought it because of its excellent condition. 

 

The other title I found with the same seller was a copy of ‘A Curtain of Green’ by Eudora Welty, one of the many Penguin titles that he had displayed on his makeshift bookshelves. It is a collection of her short stories. I got this title too for a hundred rupees. 

 

The third and last title I found in a heap of books selling for just twenty rupees. I picked up a copy of ‘Shatter’ by John Farris and decided to buy it based on Stephen King’s blurb on the cover that said ‘America’s premier novelist of terror’ that continued on the back cover too. I plan to start reading it tonight itself. 

The Sunday Haul (on 26-02-2023)

The summer season is well on its way in Hyderabad though February is not yet done with. It was uncomfortably warm last Sunday in Hyderabad when I set out for Abids. I came home with five titles when I had actually planned not to buy more than one title. But that’s Abids for you; it throws titles that I simply cannot leave behind without buying them.  

 Since a long time I’ve been planning to find out more about philosophy especially Indian philosophical thought but have been baulking thinking I wouldn’t be able to understand such a dense subject as it is beyond my limited brains. But last Sunday after I saw a hardcover copy of ‘The Problematic and Conceptual Structure of Classical Indian Thought about Man, Society, and Polity’ by Daya Krishna, I thought let me make a beginning with this title and bought it. I paid a hundred rupees for this title that seems to be some kind of an academic book. 

The second find at Abids last Sunday was a copy of ‘Keep it Real’ by Lee Gutkind, a book on writing creative non-fiction. It was a slim book and Lee Gutkind seemed kind of familiar name that I had come across in writing magazines, I think. Slim though the book was it didn’t come cheap at two hundred rupees. 

 When I spotted the copy of ‘The Madras Mag Anthology of Contemporary Writing’ edited by Krupa Ge that had an attractive cover I decided to buy it whatever the cost. I got it for a hundred rupees and after I got home and opened it, I found not only a beautiful bookmark but a few of the authors who had contributed to the anthology had also signed on one of the inside pages. I could make out the signatures of Sharanya Manivannan and also MR Sharan. 

I love everything published by the venerable Sahitya Akademi. They publish translations of stories and novels of little-known writers in different parts of India and the books are very modestly priced. Sometime back I had found copies of ‘Contemporary Indian Short Stories-Series I, II & III’ by Sahitya Akademi. Last Sunday I found a beautiful copy of ‘Contemporary Indian Short Stories-Series I’ by Sahitya Akademi that I had forgotten I already have but bought it anyway. There are fifteen stories in this series, by Ismat Chugtai, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, Dhumketu, Masti Venkatesa Iyengar and others. 

 I had been looking for a decent copy of Fowler’s ‘Modern English Usage’ that I can afford since a long time and at last I found a nice copy but the price was a ridiculous thirty rupees. I couldn’t believe it since such books especially dictionaries and the like are not available for less than a hundred rupees at Abids. 

The Sunday Haul (on 19-02-2023)

 Last Sunday at last I found a book by a columnist I read occasionally. I was thrilled to find a well-read copy of ‘The Accidental Theorist’ by Paul Krugman and got it pretty cheap at fifty rupees only. I am eager to start reading the essays in this title. 

Another title that I got for only twenty rupees was a copy of ‘Barren Island’ by John D. MacDonald. This is not a Travis McGee title. 

The Sunday Haul (on 12-02-2023)

 Last Sunday it was the usual Sunday in Hyderabad and in my life, though the temperature seems to be going up. Summer is approaching and safe to say it is round the corner. Though it wasn’t very hot I was glad I took along my cap and wore it all through the couple of hours I was out in the open at Abids. 

 I saw a hardcover copy of a title that I thought I had read about earlier but it wasn’t so. It was a nice copy of ‘The Unmapped Mind’ by Christian Donlan that the seller wouldn’t give at a price I wanted. The price he quoted was way too beyond my capacity so I walked away though he lowered the price a bit. For some reason no title that I saw on the pavements seemed to interest me until I realized it was that hardcover title that I had seen that I wanted to buy. So I gave in and decided to pay the seller what he wanted and picked up the book. 

 

There’s a book I ought to have read a long time back but I never got around to reading it because either I didn’t find a good copy or I couldn’t find the time to read it with the attention that such titles require. Anyway, last Sunday on the way back home from Chikkadpally I stopped at one of the couple of sellers there I spotted a nice copy of ‘Discovery of India’ by Jawaharlal Nehru that I grabbed. I got this book for only two hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (0n 05-02-2023)

The trip to Abids last Sunday yielded a pretty good haul including a title I thought I missed buying earlier. Three of the titles were ones that I hadn’t read about anywhere. 

The moment I spotted this book I realized there was something special about it. When I picked up ‘A Dark Night’s Passing’ by Naoya Shiga drawn to it by its cover and opened the pages I knew I my first instinct that it was something special was confirmed when I read the blurbs. 

 

Though I had seen many copies of ‘Last Orders’ by Graham Swift on several occasions at Abids somehow I wasn’t very interested in buying the title. Last Sunday at Abids I saw a nice copy of ‘Learning to Swim and Other Stories’ by Graham Swift I knew I had to buy it if only for the reason that it was in a heap of books selling for twenty rupees only. 

About a couple of months ago I spotted a copy of ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life’ by Alain de Botton at Abids that I foolishly did not pick up. I had bought more than five books that Sunday and didn’t feel like buying another book with the seller who was a cantankerous fellow who quoted outrageous prices. But the next Sunday when I looked it wasn’t there making me feel like kicking myself for not having bought it the first time I saw it. Until last Sunday I looked for it every Sunday and then when I saw it last Sunday I felt very excited and grabbed it. 

    There are some books I feel irresistibly drawn towards though I or anybody else has heard about the author or the title. Sometime back I had found a book by a civil servant of yesteryears who had served in the court of a modern maharajah just before Independence in 1947. I had bought it intrigued by what I read in the few pages I randomly opened. Sometime afterwards I found another small and slim volume by an Indian diplomat in the early sixties or seventies that was once again a personal account of the times he had spent in various countries during his postings. Last Sunday at Abids I found another similar title that was also slim and small.  It was a copy of ‘Pawn in the Seventh House’ by R.G. Rajwade a civil servant in the house of Scindias who transformed into a diplomat after Independence. This slim volume published by Sangam Books, a division of Orient Longman and now no longer in existence is about the author’s time abroad in the service of the country. I was drawn to the font that was common to the books published in the sixties.

The Sunday Haul at the Hyderabad Literary Festival (on 29-01-2023)

 Since the past few years I haven’t been too interested in the Hyderabad Lit Fest (not that it matters to anyone) and this year too I felt the same kind of disappointment. I could go only on the last day of the HLF 2023, on Sunday, and I felt out of place amidst the crowd but I couldn’t place why I felt the way I felt. Anyway, I sat in a couple of sessions watched the people in the sessions intently listening to the authors. Of course, there was the book counter and I managed to buy two books almost emptying my wallet on just these two titles. 

 

I don’t know why I haven’t read much of what Arvind Krishna Mehrotra has written on literature in English in India. I have a copy of his ‘An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English’ and had also read it a long time back but I haven’t found anything else by him other than a collection of his poetry ‘The Transfiguring Places’ that I found a not long after I found ‘An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English’. I picked up a copy of ‘Partial Recall’ by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra- Essays on Literature and Literary History’ that is just what I wanted to read. There are eleven essays in it and if the Introduction is anything to go by (there’s some scathing criticism of the reviewers and critics) then it promises to be one good read. 

I read the title essay that was about his childhood in Bhilai, and also studying in Allahabad where he along with his friends brought out a magazine. It is a delightful essay written in a conversational tone about his attempts to write poetry, about his friend Amit who later dies of cancer. After reading this essay I want to read the other ones too right away instead of putting off reading the book to a later time. 

The next book I picked up was a copy of ‘Writing the City’ edited by Stuti Khanna that had an attractive cover though I did not pick it up for the cover but for what was inside: essays by some writers about the cities they live or lived in. It is a collection of essays by fourteen writers that include Chandrahas Choudhury (on Bombay and Delhi), Sumana Roy (on Siliguri), Manju Kapur, Amitabha Bagchi, and also Ankush Saikia among others. The essays are in first person and most of the writers write about their writing and this is something I like to read. However, this slim volume of over a hundred and ten pages put me back by more than eight hundred rupees. 

The Sunday Haul (on 22-01-2023)

It takes much to stop me from visiting the secondhand book market that comes up every Sunday at Abids. It has become a deep-rooted habit that’s just not possible for me to give up. So last Sunday too I was at Abids as usual right after breakfast. 

 

I like to travel and though I haven’t travelled much in my own country I wish to travel somewhere abroad. I hadn’t any opportunity to go to another country and I don’t think the opportunity will come unless I create it. A couple of years later I will be retiring so I am thinking of travelling to a country like Vietnam and also Cambodia, if possible. I want to see Vietnam because I have read about how the United States waged a war against this tiny nation and lost. Cambodia simply because I want to see the temples at Angkor Wat and also go around the country where millions lost their lives during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. I don’t know if I can make the trip but I dream of it though I have no idea about either country. Luckily last Sunday at Abids the first book I saw was an old copy of a Lonely Planet book- South-East Asia on a Shoestring that I eagerly picked up though it was a twenty-year old edition.

Though I am not computer savvy I know enough about how computers changed the lives of people who made them. When I saw a copy of ‘Accidental Empires’ by Robert X. Cringely I read on the cover that it was about the Silicon Valley and how they made their fortunes. It sounded interesting and so I picked it up though I have no idea when I will find the time to read this book that runs into exactly three hundred and fifty pages. It is dated of course but I want to read it. I got this book for hundred rupees. 

The next find was a book I already own. I have all the three titles in Chinua Achebe’s trilogy beginning with ‘Things Fall Apart.’ But when I saw a nice copy ‘A Man of the People’ by Chinua Achebe with a cover different from the one on the copy I own I couldn’t resist buying it. I bought it for eighty rupees only. 

 

What kind of crazy bibliophile I am you will wonder when you find out that I have six copies of ‘All About H. Hatterr’ by G.V. Desani on my bookshelf. Anyone with a normal brain will not buy another copy even though it is given free to him but since I love this classic like anything I bought my seventh copy when I saw it at a seller near the GPO at Abids. 

In a couple of weeks from now I will be turning sixty, something that I am yet to believe. A lot of physical changes may have taken in my body mentally I haven’t aged much. ‘The Challenge of Aging’ John A.B. McLeish suggests ‘Ulyssean Paths to Creative Living’ that I want to learn about. I hope it is as good as the blurbs say it is. I got it for hundred rupees at a seller in Chikkadpally on the way home from Abids. 

The Sunday Haul (on 15-01-2023)

Due to the Sankranti festival and the ensuing holidays there seemed to be fewer people at Abids last Sunday. I saw one seller packing up his books early into the afternoon and told me there was no business as there were no customers so that is why he was leaving early. It was too late for me to buy a couple of books with him because he was almost ready to leave with all his books packed into the sacks.

 

In a heap of books that has yielded several books during the past few Sundays I saw yet another wonderful title. I found a copy of ‘During the Journey and Other Stories’ by Sethu. After I flipped through the cover and a few pages I found that it was a collection of fifteen short stories in Malayalam translated into English by Aboobacker Kappad. It has a foreword by the renowned Malayalam writer K. Satchidanandan who praised the author Sethu for the stories. 

 

With another seller where I had picked up the Raymond Carver title and also the one by James Cameron I noticed another title that I seemed to have missed seeing the previous Sunday. It was a copy of ‘Dead Letter’ by Jonathan Valin and appeared to be a crime thriller title, one of a series of Harry Stoner. I love to read well written thrillers like these. The blurbs on the book looked good enough to make me buy it. It was for twenty rupees only.