After around four weeks of deciding and
dropping, this Sunday (20 April 2014) I finally managed to get to Abids for the
mid-morning book hunt... did I have an idea what to look for? Or was it going
to be a random search? look around and
see what you get kind of search? Well,
it always starts with a list…and then slowly the search becomes free for
all…you don’t know what might turn up at those piles of books…
I wanted to see if anything by Simon
Brett turned up… I loved reading his Fethering mysteries and Charles Paris
mysteries; ebooks that I found online…I wanted to buy some of them at least,
but the prices on Indian online bookstores were so prohibitive that I was
stunned for a while…then, I thought, chalo, Abids mein dekhenge…so, Simon Brett
was on my mind…then I wanted to see if I could get something by Jo Nesbo…I also
had Len Deighton’s Hook on my list…I had found Line and Sinker
at Abids some time ago and without Hook, I couldn’t start reading the
trilogy...yeah, Harlen Coben too…Peter Robinson…Elmore Leonard…so many names of
writers swirling around my head…
The first book that I found interesting
enough to buy was something that was completely unanticipated…it had no cover…Goodbye
to Elsa by Saros Cowasjee…I wondered why no cover… I remember seeing
this book in a government library while I was in school and thought I should
read it, but somehow didn’t … the author’s name was familiar… I also remembered
reading his Stories from the Raj…and Goodbye to Elsa was only for ten
rupees…I picked it up… this was from the first pile at the beginning of the
street…
I went to the next pile and saw a random
collection of books … and out of this random collection, I picked up two books…
music and humour … Best Music Writing 2007 and Morecambe and Wise-their funniest
jokes, one-liners and sketches… I don’t know how many articles I am
going to read from Best Music Writing 2007, but I didn’t want to give up the book
and moreover it was only ten rupees…
Morecambe and Wise I picked up as
soon as I saw the book …
I kind of like the British kind of wry humour… (watch A Bit
of Fry and Laurie…) … it is a small book and the items are taken from
their various sketches they did together as Eric and Ernie…I finished it off
quickly… the lines are great…sample these…
Eric: Who’s
your tailor?
Ernie: Why?
Eric: That
was my second question.
*******************************************************
Ernie: Can
you telephone from an aeroplane?
Eric: Anyone
can tell a phone from an aeroplane, can’t they?
*************************************************************
Eric: Why
don’t you have a dance?
Ernie:
Actually, I don’t think I will…I’m a little stiff from badminton.
Eric: It
doesn’t matter where you’re from…you can still join in.
There are lots more in the book…
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