Friday, June 28, 2013
Trip No. 6 Dehradun
I am in Dehradun since eight days in connection with the Kedarnath\badrinath floods relief work. There is a lot I have to tell but do not have the time. I will post next week.
Friday, June 21, 2013
The Sunday Haul
It was another pleasant Sunday morning with cloudy skies and gusts of wind. I had not read about any exciting new writer in the Sunday papers so I did not hope to find any new books. I made a vague decision to try not to buy any books at Abids. But even before I could reach Abids I found two books at Chikkadpally that I felt I must buy. One of the titles was one that I had already bought recently but hadn’t written about it here. Shrikant had borrowed it and hence I did not write about it. I found a good copy of Sri Sri’s ‘Maha Prasthanam’ which I decided to give to Shrikant. I also found Sri Sri’s Khadga Srushti’ that I wanted to read. They were slim titles and I got them for just thirty rupees.
At Abids even before I could have tea with Uma I found a book. It wasn’t exactly a good start considering my vague decision. I consoled myself saying that it was a very good book that I had found. Apart from the weather another pleasant thing was that I met Jai once again at Abids. I am sure the Abids bug has got Jai since he was looking at the books pretty closely on his second visit after his recent visit sometime last month.
A long time back I had bought a copy of Ken Kesey’s ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at Abids. It wasn’t such a good copy so when I saw this nice Penguin copy of the same book I couldn’t resist picking it up. I got the book for only sixty rupees. Later, I saw other books including ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro’ by Hemingway and ‘Girl 20’ by Kingsley Amis that I had planned to buy. But I did not feel like picking them up for some reason.
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Sunday Haul
The Hyderabadi weather in June was never as pleasant as it is these days. The monsoon has begun earlier than expeted and it’s been raining almost every day since the beginning of the month. It rained quite heavily in the night last Saturday giving the impression that it would continue to rain on Sunday also. I woke up on Sunday morning hoping it wouldn’t rain later in the day. Luckily, it didn’t.
Till the previous Sunday I had bought a total of 72 books since the beginning of the year. It was considerably less than the 94 books I had bought during the whole of 2012. I had still more than six months to go and I decided I did not want to create any new records. I had unsuccessfully attempted several time in the past to put a stop to this habit of buying more books than I can read. However I couldn’t and can’t stop myself from picking up whatever good titles I happen to find at Abids. Last Sunday I ended up buying taking the total tally to 75 books after I picked up three more books.
The first book I bought was Chinua Achebe’s ‘Arrow of God’ which I bought for forty rupees. Sometime in April I had found ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ but haven’t read it yet. ‘Arrow of God’s is the final title in a trilogy with ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘No Longer at Ease’ being the first two titles. I’ve come across ‘Things Fall Apart’ earlier but somehow I did not feel like buying it. But now I’ve decided to buy the other two titles in the trilogy and then read all the three books one by one. However, I don’t think I’d be able to find ‘No Longer at Ease’ so easily.
After I picked up Camilla Lackberg’s ‘The Stone Cutter’ for Rs 75 I wondered if I had erred in buying another crime fiction title when I have almost a dozen of them lying with me unread. However, later I was glad to find that Lackberg is a well known writer and her books are bestsellers in the league of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. I hope I find a couple of days to read the 565 page book.
Every Sunday morning I sit in an Irani café in the neighbourhood for about an hour reading the Sunday papers and sipping chai. Last Sunday in the Sunday magazine of The New Indian Express there was a cover story about Summer Reading List of 2013 which was odd considering that summer is more or less over with the coming of the rains. Anyway, Tishani Doshi’s list of her Top 5 books included ‘Five Star Billionaire’ by Tash Aw. Somehow the unusual name stuck in my mind. At Abids I came across ‘The Harmony Silk Factory’ by Tash Aw. I bought the book for Rs 50. With this 75th book I hope to pause for a while in my book buying until I manage to at least half the number of books I buy every year. So far I’ve read only 35 books which is less than half the number of books I have bought so far this year.
Till the previous Sunday I had bought a total of 72 books since the beginning of the year. It was considerably less than the 94 books I had bought during the whole of 2012. I had still more than six months to go and I decided I did not want to create any new records. I had unsuccessfully attempted several time in the past to put a stop to this habit of buying more books than I can read. However I couldn’t and can’t stop myself from picking up whatever good titles I happen to find at Abids. Last Sunday I ended up buying taking the total tally to 75 books after I picked up three more books.
The first book I bought was Chinua Achebe’s ‘Arrow of God’ which I bought for forty rupees. Sometime in April I had found ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ but haven’t read it yet. ‘Arrow of God’s is the final title in a trilogy with ‘Things Fall Apart’ and ‘No Longer at Ease’ being the first two titles. I’ve come across ‘Things Fall Apart’ earlier but somehow I did not feel like buying it. But now I’ve decided to buy the other two titles in the trilogy and then read all the three books one by one. However, I don’t think I’d be able to find ‘No Longer at Ease’ so easily.
Every Sunday morning I sit in an Irani café in the neighbourhood for about an hour reading the Sunday papers and sipping chai. Last Sunday in the Sunday magazine of The New Indian Express there was a cover story about Summer Reading List of 2013 which was odd considering that summer is more or less over with the coming of the rains. Anyway, Tishani Doshi’s list of her Top 5 books included ‘Five Star Billionaire’ by Tash Aw. Somehow the unusual name stuck in my mind. At Abids I came across ‘The Harmony Silk Factory’ by Tash Aw. I bought the book for Rs 50. With this 75th book I hope to pause for a while in my book buying until I manage to at least half the number of books I buy every year. So far I’ve read only 35 books which is less than half the number of books I have bought so far this year.
Friday, June 07, 2013
The Sunday Haul
In more than two decades of experience looking for books I have come to realize that you grab a good title the first time you see it or it won’t be there the next time you want to buy it. I’ve missed buying several good titles because I’ve hesitated for some reason or the other. On the other hand I’ve also come to realize that in most cases what you missed buying the first time around will always turn up somewhere sooner or later. I have several instances to show this. Sometime back I had seen James Cameron’s ‘Indian Summer’ at Abids but I did not buy it which I felt was a foolish decision. I saw it again at a street-side secondhand book seller at Connaught Place in Delhi. I did not buy it this time because the price was too high. Ultimately, the title turned up last year at the Best Books sale and this time I did not let it go and bought it. At the same sale I saw JR Ackerley’s ‘Hindoo Holiday’ that I did not buy for the simple reason that I had spent quite a packet buying almost half a dozen books including ‘Indian Summer.’ But later I had second thoughts and returned to the sale the next day only to find, not unsurprisingly that the book was sold. I felt a crushing regret.
However, last Sunday the title turned up at Abids. This copy was different from the one I had seen at the sale. The copy I saw at Abids had a plain yellow cover with the title printed on it and appeared more like an unedited proof copy or an advance reviewer’s copy. There were also a couple of typos on the covers.But it turned out to be an Indian edition published by Arnold Heinemann publishers in 1979. This 1979 edition, I read in the Ackerley's preface to the second edition, includes omissions made in the first edition brought out in 1952 and also some new material. Apart from this, the new edition has an introduction by Saros Cowasjee. I got it for sixty rupees though I’d have been happier if I had a regular copy with the normal cover.
The second find of Sunday was sort of a double treat. I found ‘Poodle Springs’ that is a novel begun by Raymond Chandler who couldn't finish it. Robert B. Parker completed the novel and ‘Poodle Springs’ came to be published. The cover has names of both Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker on it which made it all the more interesting. Before I found the book I was not aware of this interesting background. I was lucky to get it in from a heap of books selling for only Thirty rupees.
Friday, May 31, 2013
The Sunday Haul
Impatience, on many occasions, landed me in avoidable and embarrassing situations, hurt my ego and of course, emptied my pockets faster than anything else. On the rare occasion when I have held myself back I’ve been rewarded though not as much as I had expected. But if you are a book lover and are always on the hunt for them in second hand stores, patience is not advised. You don’t put aside a hard to find book with the idea of buying it later. You simply grab the book, pay for it at whatever price it is available and get out of the store. In such situations the adage ‘He who hesitates loses’ holds good.
Sometime last week I was in the Best Books branch in Lakdikapul and had just then picked up ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ which was probably the reason why I did not buy the next book I saw. It was ‘John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ on a shelf near the staircase on the first floor. I instinctively felt that it was a good book without even reading the blurbs at the back. I had also not heard about this book before but had that gut feeling buying it right away would be the thing to do. But I didn’t. One reason was the price which was Rs 75. Another reason was that I did not want to take home two more books on a week day. So I gave up the idea of buying ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ hoping that the book would be there till my next visit.
Last Sunday, at the same spot at the same seller from where I had picked up Alistair MacLeod’s ‘The Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ for twenty rupees I saw another copy of John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps.’ I picked it up without a second thought for the same price that I paid for MacLeod’s book. This copy had a different cover though but was also in perfect condition. I was glad I had not picked up the other copy I had seen at Best Books the other day. Sometimes I pick up books by its cover alone and on Sunday apart from the cover the author’s name also influenced me to buy an interesting book. I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Name is Aram’ by William Saroyan and illustrated by Don Freeman. It had an interesting illustrated cover and appeared like a copy worth collecting so I took it. I got it for only fifty rupees. The book was in good condition and appeared to be a copy from a library.
The next find was at Chikkadpally where I picked up a book I had seen the previous Sunday. I’ve never read any book by Shashi Tharoor so when I found one of his earliest works- ‘The Five Dollar Smile’- I bought it by paying fifty rupees for it.
Sometime last week I was in the Best Books branch in Lakdikapul and had just then picked up ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ which was probably the reason why I did not buy the next book I saw. It was ‘John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ on a shelf near the staircase on the first floor. I instinctively felt that it was a good book without even reading the blurbs at the back. I had also not heard about this book before but had that gut feeling buying it right away would be the thing to do. But I didn’t. One reason was the price which was Rs 75. Another reason was that I did not want to take home two more books on a week day. So I gave up the idea of buying ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ hoping that the book would be there till my next visit.
Last Sunday, at the same spot at the same seller from where I had picked up Alistair MacLeod’s ‘The Lost Salt Gift of Blood’ for twenty rupees I saw another copy of John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty Nine Steps.’ I picked it up without a second thought for the same price that I paid for MacLeod’s book. This copy had a different cover though but was also in perfect condition. I was glad I had not picked up the other copy I had seen at Best Books the other day. Sometimes I pick up books by its cover alone and on Sunday apart from the cover the author’s name also influenced me to buy an interesting book. I saw a hardcover copy of ‘My Name is Aram’ by William Saroyan and illustrated by Don Freeman. It had an interesting illustrated cover and appeared like a copy worth collecting so I took it. I got it for only fifty rupees. The book was in good condition and appeared to be a copy from a library.
The next find was at Chikkadpally where I picked up a book I had seen the previous Sunday. I’ve never read any book by Shashi Tharoor so when I found one of his earliest works- ‘The Five Dollar Smile’- I bought it by paying fifty rupees for it.
Friday, May 24, 2013
The Sunday Haul
In Hyderabad May isn’t exactly the time of the year to be outdoors during the day. In May you can’t walk in the open for more than ten minutes without keeling over with sunstroke unless you are from Jubilee Hills in which case it takes less than three minutes however stylish your sunglasses might be. The temperature is in the mid-forties and one sweats buckets. Personally, I feel like jumping into a swimming pool and staying there until the end of summer. With temperatures like that you have to be either crazy or a banana vendor to venture outdoors especially in the afternoon. Unlike my previous field postings in this post at the Secretariat I usually do not get an opportunity to go out in the open. But on Sundays come what may I am at Abids. This Sunday I had particular reason to worry. I am still trying to overcome a bad cold and wondered if I’d be able to go to Abids and return on my own after spending more than two hours in the scorching sun. Luckily, it was a cloudy Sunday and the sun wasn’t to be seen in the morning. It was cool and pleasant. It got pleasanter later in the day at Abids when Jai appeared on the scene.
As soon as we gathered and after our mandatory chai we set out to look at the heaps of books. I did not find anything interesting anywhere for a long time. At the seller near the GPO there were the books I had seen last Sunday but somehow I did not buy the Nadeem Aslam titles. When we reached Bata Jai spotted me and moments later I found a Parker title- Stardust- that I did not then know I already had. The four of us headed towards an Irani and over a cup of chai chatted about books, fountain pens and everything people who love books and fountain pens talk about. I’d have spent some more time but Sunday happened to be my marriage anniversary (18th, btw) so I had to leave early. Of course, I did not go home straight but stopped at Chikkadpally for a few minutes. There I found a copy of Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’ with a beautiful red cover. I got it for sixty rupees.
It has been nearly eight years since I’ve been to the Andamans and not a day passes without some memory of that wonderful place flashing through the mind. I always make it a point to read everything I come across that is related to the Andamans. Unfortunately, there isn’t much. During my stay in the Andamans I got to read a few pages of Madhusree Mukherjee’s wonderful book ‘The Land of Naked People’ before someone took it away. I never came across that book again but last Saturday on a visit to the Best Book branch at Lakdikapul I found another book on the Andamans. It was a small, slim volume tucked in a corner of a bookshelf, the sort of book I like to pick up. It was ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ by Suresh Vaidya and published by Orient Paperbacks. The original cover was missing and the present volume had a make-do cover. I picked it up because it was a travelogue and I had never read one on the Andamans. It had only a hundred eighty pages and looked very interesting so I took it.
As soon as we gathered and after our mandatory chai we set out to look at the heaps of books. I did not find anything interesting anywhere for a long time. At the seller near the GPO there were the books I had seen last Sunday but somehow I did not buy the Nadeem Aslam titles. When we reached Bata Jai spotted me and moments later I found a Parker title- Stardust- that I did not then know I already had. The four of us headed towards an Irani and over a cup of chai chatted about books, fountain pens and everything people who love books and fountain pens talk about. I’d have spent some more time but Sunday happened to be my marriage anniversary (18th, btw) so I had to leave early. Of course, I did not go home straight but stopped at Chikkadpally for a few minutes. There I found a copy of Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’ with a beautiful red cover. I got it for sixty rupees.
It has been nearly eight years since I’ve been to the Andamans and not a day passes without some memory of that wonderful place flashing through the mind. I always make it a point to read everything I come across that is related to the Andamans. Unfortunately, there isn’t much. During my stay in the Andamans I got to read a few pages of Madhusree Mukherjee’s wonderful book ‘The Land of Naked People’ before someone took it away. I never came across that book again but last Saturday on a visit to the Best Book branch at Lakdikapul I found another book on the Andamans. It was a small, slim volume tucked in a corner of a bookshelf, the sort of book I like to pick up. It was ‘Islands of the Marigold Sun’ by Suresh Vaidya and published by Orient Paperbacks. The original cover was missing and the present volume had a make-do cover. I picked it up because it was a travelogue and I had never read one on the Andamans. It had only a hundred eighty pages and looked very interesting so I took it.
Friday, May 17, 2013
FRIDAY DOUBLE POST- The Sunday Haul- Three Aces
When it comes to finding good books I know I am lucky. Not just lucky, but sometimes very, very lucky. Of course, apart from luck it also helps that I have been rootling around for books at Abids for more than two decades and also possess quite a sharp eye for good titles. Last Sunday at Abids all this came into play when I literally struck gold finding a hard-to-get classic by a little known writer. Though I spent hardly an hour at Abids I managed to grab three good books including the treasured title.
After a quick cup of chai at our usual Irani joint we set out to find the best pickings from among the thousands of books on the pavements of Abids. In the last week of April, during a meet of the Hyderabad group of ‘goodreads’ someone had mentioned Buddhadeva Bose’s “It Rained All Night” and said it was worth reading. My first find on Sunday was a decent copy of “It Rained All Night” that I got for fifty rupees. It was a good start to Sunday and I thought I wouldn’t find any more and also did not wish to buy more books.
Lisa St Aubin De Teràn was a name I had neither heard nor read about before. But when I saw ‘The Slow Train to Milan’ by Lisa St Aubin De Teràn I had the feeling that it could be a good book. The fact that it was a Penguin title only added to my hunch. It was in a scattered pile of books selling for thirty rupees. After I picked up the book I read the blurbs at the back- ‘She writes quite beautifully- The Times; ‘A Writer of enormous gifts’- Daily Telegraph. I added it to my haul without another thought.
The last find- the treasure- happened quite serendipitously. There’s a seller just beside the Abids GPO, on the road to Hotel Grand who puts up a few books for sale. The previous Sunday we had found Basharat Peer’s ‘Curfewed Nights’ that Uma took. I thought maybe we’d take a quick peek at his collection so we took a few more steps towards the seller. He had a spread of treasures- one MG Vassanji, two Nadeem Aslam titles, two Bandula Chandraratne titles and other writers I cannot recollect now. Amidst these titles was that title I had been looking for since a long time. I had found GV Desani’s ‘Hali and Collected Stories’ a couple of years ago but what I hoped to find was his ‘All About H.Hatterr’ which was an impossible wish considering it is out of print, rare and so on.
Last Sunday, to my luck, I came across it nestled among other books with only its title visible. I have never been as excited as I was on that day when I grabbed the book from the pavement. I was on cloud nine to find GV Desani’s ‘All About H.Hatterr’ for just sixty rupees. It was a good copy and I couldn’t believe it and kept muttering to myself all day about what a lucky bloke I was. Normally I get a bit annoyed about having to go to office on Sundays and other holidays but last Sunday it did not matter that I had to go to the office shortly afterwards. When I got home in the evening I looked at my haul again. It was a pleasant coincidence that all three titles I had found were Penguin titles. But GV Desani’s ‘All About H.Hatterr’ will be another prized possession in my collection.
After a quick cup of chai at our usual Irani joint we set out to find the best pickings from among the thousands of books on the pavements of Abids. In the last week of April, during a meet of the Hyderabad group of ‘goodreads’ someone had mentioned Buddhadeva Bose’s “It Rained All Night” and said it was worth reading. My first find on Sunday was a decent copy of “It Rained All Night” that I got for fifty rupees. It was a good start to Sunday and I thought I wouldn’t find any more and also did not wish to buy more books.
Lisa St Aubin De Teràn was a name I had neither heard nor read about before. But when I saw ‘The Slow Train to Milan’ by Lisa St Aubin De Teràn I had the feeling that it could be a good book. The fact that it was a Penguin title only added to my hunch. It was in a scattered pile of books selling for thirty rupees. After I picked up the book I read the blurbs at the back- ‘She writes quite beautifully- The Times; ‘A Writer of enormous gifts’- Daily Telegraph. I added it to my haul without another thought.
The last find- the treasure- happened quite serendipitously. There’s a seller just beside the Abids GPO, on the road to Hotel Grand who puts up a few books for sale. The previous Sunday we had found Basharat Peer’s ‘Curfewed Nights’ that Uma took. I thought maybe we’d take a quick peek at his collection so we took a few more steps towards the seller. He had a spread of treasures- one MG Vassanji, two Nadeem Aslam titles, two Bandula Chandraratne titles and other writers I cannot recollect now. Amidst these titles was that title I had been looking for since a long time. I had found GV Desani’s ‘Hali and Collected Stories’ a couple of years ago but what I hoped to find was his ‘All About H.Hatterr’ which was an impossible wish considering it is out of print, rare and so on.
Last Sunday, to my luck, I came across it nestled among other books with only its title visible. I have never been as excited as I was on that day when I grabbed the book from the pavement. I was on cloud nine to find GV Desani’s ‘All About H.Hatterr’ for just sixty rupees. It was a good copy and I couldn’t believe it and kept muttering to myself all day about what a lucky bloke I was. Normally I get a bit annoyed about having to go to office on Sundays and other holidays but last Sunday it did not matter that I had to go to the office shortly afterwards. When I got home in the evening I looked at my haul again. It was a pleasant coincidence that all three titles I had found were Penguin titles. But GV Desani’s ‘All About H.Hatterr’ will be another prized possession in my collection.
FRIDAY DOUBLE POST : 2013 Trips: Trip No: 5- Dash (to) Capital
Last Thursday I had to visit Delhi again on some important and pressing work. I had been there barely a week ago and once again I was off to the Capital. But this time I did not go alone. The No. 1 was with me on the trip. When I was told I have to travel to Delhi the first thing that came to mind was to pick up all the books I had not picked up during the previous visit. At Janpath I had seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ and at Nehru Place I had seen Paul Theroux’s ‘Pillars of Hercules’ which I did not pick up because of the too high prices. I was then not in a mood to splurge around thousand rupees for just these two books and it was a heartbreaking decision to walk away empty handed. But after I got home later in the night I regretted this decision and told myself that I’d buy at least ‘Pillars of Hercules’ on the next visit.
So here I was in Delhi again for a day. There was just a short visit to an office somewhere in RK Puram which wouldn’t last more than an hour. Afterwards I thought I’d be free until the return flight in the evening. There was a car on hand and I planned to dash to Nehru Place and pick up ‘Pillars of Hercules’ at least but things did not work out that way. We were tied up until late in the afternoon so after tea we left for the airport and got there hours before check-in time. It was suggested that we use the time for work which involved writing a note on the visit. Since I had nothing else to do apart from gawking at other well dressed travelers in the airport I agreed.
So, sitting in a café somewhere in Terminal 3 and surrounded by guys drinking beer I sat and wrote out a report in long hand, all three pages of it. I managed to finish it by the time our flight was announced. That was the second task accomplished and there was one more left. The unfinished task was completing reading Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ which I had started to read in the car on the way to the airport at Hyderabad, and continued to read in the plane to Delhi. By the time we landed in Hyderabad I was done reading the wonderful book.
So here I was in Delhi again for a day. There was just a short visit to an office somewhere in RK Puram which wouldn’t last more than an hour. Afterwards I thought I’d be free until the return flight in the evening. There was a car on hand and I planned to dash to Nehru Place and pick up ‘Pillars of Hercules’ at least but things did not work out that way. We were tied up until late in the afternoon so after tea we left for the airport and got there hours before check-in time. It was suggested that we use the time for work which involved writing a note on the visit. Since I had nothing else to do apart from gawking at other well dressed travelers in the airport I agreed.
So, sitting in a café somewhere in Terminal 3 and surrounded by guys drinking beer I sat and wrote out a report in long hand, all three pages of it. I managed to finish it by the time our flight was announced. That was the second task accomplished and there was one more left. The unfinished task was completing reading Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ which I had started to read in the car on the way to the airport at Hyderabad, and continued to read in the plane to Delhi. By the time we landed in Hyderabad I was done reading the wonderful book.
Friday, May 10, 2013
2013 TRIPS: Trip No 5- Delhi Again
Once again, like a homing pigeon, I flew to Delhi for the second time this year on an official trip. Last Tuesday I went to Delhi on my fifth official trip of the year. This trip came at an opportune time. My kid who was on a school trip to Nainital was in Delhi to spend a week with his cousins, my brother’s kids. It has been almost three weeks since I had last seen him so I was kind of restless to see him. I thought I couldn’t bear another week’s wait when this lucky chance to go to Delhi presented itself.
The meeting at Delhi lasted half a day and I was free after lunch. I thought of checking out the bookstores to see if I could find other titles by Arun Joshi. From the meeting venue (India International Centre) Janpath was the nearest place I could begin my search. For a moment one of the sellers on Janpath had me in excited suspense when he told me he had an Arun Joshi title but it turned out to be a false alarm. At another seller I saw Chimamanda’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ that I wanted to buy but did not. My next stop was at Khan Market where I thought I’d find at least one title at Bahrisons. I did find an Arun Joshi title but it was ‘The Foreigner’ that I already have. Nevertheless I picked it up. Then I had the idea of going to Nehru Place where there’s a used book store where I had earlier picked up a book by Edward Albee.
I got there at around four in the hot sun. At the book store I did not find any title by Arun Joshi but came across a book I was looking for. It was Paul Theroux’s ‘Pillars of Hercules’ and it was a massive tome that was on sale for five hundred rupees. Since I did not plan to spend so much I did not buy it but now I think I should have bought it. Afterwards I went to my brother’s home eager to see my son only to learn that he had gone out to play. He came after an hour’s agonizing wait and I hugged him like I hadn’t seen him for years. He too seemed happy to see me. He had lost weight since he had been on miles long hikes in Nainital. I returned to Hyderabad the next day feeling glad to have seen my kid after a long time. On Sunday he was back home.
The Sunday Haul
On Sunday I spent a short time at Abids because I had to go to pick up my son who was returning from Delhi. During that short hunt I found yet another copy of Helene Hanff’s ’84 Charing Cross Road.’ I got very cheap at only thirty rupees. This copy was in good condition and had a nice plastic jacket all over. The other Sunday I had picked up an old copy of Sri Sri’s ‘Mahaprasthanam’ for ten rupees. I had been thinking of reading it since a long time and at last I found a good copy. I haven’t yet started reading it because Srikant borrowed it from me.
Friday, May 03, 2013
The Sunday Haul
The first find of Sunday was a beautiful copy of Anne Enright's 'The Gathering' that I got cheap for Rs 75 at Chikkadpally. This is my second copy of the Booker winning title. I plan to give one of the copies with me to someone who might want to read Enright.
The second find of Sunday was another Anne Enright title that I had seen the previous Sunday too. 'The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch' by Anne Enright had been in a heap selling for fifty rupees last Sunday but this Sunday it was in a Rs 20 heap so I snapped it up.
The third find was an impulsive buy. I picked up Peter Blauner's 'Casino Moon' after I saw the Penguin imprint and the blurbs at the back. I want to read it sometime very soon.
The last find was Nirad C. Chaudhuri's 'To Live or Not to Live' that I found at another seller at Chikkadpally. After reading Arun Joshi I do not want to miss reading any Indian writer who wrote in English in the early years of the previous century. This wasn't the last find though. At Abids I had picked up the April 2012 issue of 'The New Yorker' magazine that I got for only twenty rupees.
Photographs of books taken by Uma Shanker.
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