where did the dusty old books go yaar?

There is something intoxicating about the smell of musty old books that cannot be beaten by the sound of a crackling new one hot off the press. Being a younger sibling, I always got a lot of those ‘hand me downs’. Each year I would pray that the NCERT would make a few changes in the course curriculum or atleast add a new chapter to their age old books, that way I’d have a bonafide reason to get a new one myself.

Only much later I started appreciating the notes in the margin helpfully annotated by my elder sibling. I’d sometimes have the answers while the unsuspecting class was still mulling over the questions!

Since I’m a voracious reader (slasher-thrillers, sci-fi, arts, meaningful stuff, biographies, you name it..), I’ve spent countless hours prowling the streets of many a city looking for a good bargain. There is the famed Daryaganj in old Delhi that is running more on its past glory than any real material, the thadi market near Gandhi Maidan in Patna where I found some amazing stuff and the owners of the dinghy little shops near the railway station in Baroda who present you with the book before you have finished mentioning the title.

When I first came to Bangalore, there were a few ‘chai ki dukaan’ type of tin boxes outside the opera house out near the end of Brigade street. They sold everything from pirated CDs to seriously dog-eared phoren magazines to the latest sizzler on the New York Times bestseller list….this from a time when everything wasn’t so freely downloadable. They apparently got razed down by the juggernaut of the brand brigade when it rolled down Brigade street a few years ago.

Ofcourse we always have Blossoms’ on church street. They have stuck their used book section on the first floor but who cares. There are books and books and more books, the air is musty enough to give you a hangover. Infact their sales people even know where to burrow in to find the most obscure author/title you can dare to name.

Then there is Book Corner near K.C. Das. It’s a lot smaller and stocks far fewer titles but you can browse there for hours without bumping into another determined book-lover every 20 cms. Both of these take back their old titles for half price and I’ve yet to beat out a more advantageous bargain from either….but there is hope, still!

There are the thadi stalls at church street, near coffee house and barton centre on M.G. but these are subject to hard bargaining and you never know whether you’ve been had or have had a good deal. The ‘sabzi-cart’ style book stall behind commercial fall in the same category and to be visited only under conditions of extreme literary-withdrawl symptoms. The lesser said of the lending libraries in Indira Nagar the better.

But in my quest for ever better deals, I’ve found a flat Rs.25 thadi stall near Bombay store on M.G. if you are not very discerning and patient enough to rummage through the haphazard pile; there might be a few pleasant surprises.

The search continues…..for Shangri la..of musty old books!