The Scent of a Book

There is something about a book,
A scent of a book,
Is similar to the scent of a woman!

Every book has its own tale to tell,
A misty fragrance that makes it special.
Every woman uses a perfume that is unique.

Many a man has tried in vain,
To woo a woman and found only pain.
Sometimes I wish it would just rain.

So I could stay back home.
With a book in hand all alone.
And find comfort in a book and a cup of coffee!

As the aroma of coffee, mixes with the misty-
Fragrance of an old book and the gentle smell of wet earth arises.
I wonder - If only, she would have said 'yes'!

I would not be all alone.
On this rainy day sitting here with this book.
We could have been together and read this book in one go!

Instead all that I have -
Are some memories of a time well-spent with you.
And I keep wondering - If only you would have said 'Yes'?

Life goes on;
I don't chase women;
All I do is hunt books!

Striking a deal with some wily book-seller!
Searching for gems in some unknown street-corner!
Hoping to find a gem!

That will offer me comfort -
From the pain of your separation!
The scent of every book is unique!

Indian Fiction

Read three books recently.

Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghvi has two plots running in tandem. One Chanakya's revenge and how he instals Chandragupta maurya as the ruler of India. The second is set in the modern political scenario where one wise man installs a young woman as the prime minister of India. All the pulp needed to make a political Bollywood mishmash. Will like to see Prakash Jha or Sudhir Mishra adapting this for the big screen.

The Shiva Trilogy by Amish. Two books by a bored investment banker that struck gold. The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas. It pits the ancient Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis against each other and brings the great warrior Shiva from the tribal snow clad plateau of Tibet. This Shiva transforms into Rudravatar the chosen one - Mahadev and chronicles his adventures and how he discovers his destiny.

Great stuff look forward to reading the final piece in the trilogy.

Folks the Landmark Sale starts on October-1 loads of discounts additional 10% off on purchases of Rs 1000 plus made using an Axis bank debit card/credit card.

Dork

Dork the debut novel by Sidin Vadukut is funny. Clear semi-autobiographical touches are visible:)

The hero Robin Einstein Vargheese an IIM graduate gets a job at Dufersene Consultants and lands up in Mumbai.

The tension among the new joinees, the confusion, ass-kissing in top management, office politics, attempted office romance, crazy HR policies, endless project meetings, the messy PowerPoint presentations, on-site visits, the Blackberry:)... everything has a mention.

The novel appears in the form of a diary and has its moments of brilliance. The story progresses and with a lot of "willful suspension of disbelief" we accept lot of stuff.

But the climax :( well somehow did not do justice to the beginning.

Worth reading once, when you just want to relax, unwind and laugh a little.

First-Love and One True Love-Books

This post is inspired by Kavi's post

I have always loved reading books. All kinds of books except my school-books:)

Some of my earliest memories of introduction to reading goes to the journey I made from Pune to Calcutta; when my father had quit one more job and sent me and my mom to my uncle. I guess it was a Chandamama that my mother bought and silenced me. I kept looking at the pictures and was awe-struck by Vikram and Betaal.

At Calcutta, I met my elder sister after a gap of three years. She took me, I was five years old I guess, in her arms and promptly placed a peck on my cheeks. I got lots of Indrajal and Amar Chitra Katha Comics and my sister would explain the stories.

At school there was Ronnie madam who took English class and it was a real treat to attend sing-along classes when rhymes and lessons were held.

I guess I was seven or eight; when I got my first Tintin comic-"The Blue Lotus" from my uncle. I guess that fateful day marked the ignition for my life-long passion for books. My uncle was separated from his wife and son; perhaps to make up for his paternal los, showered all his affection on me. Sundays would be spent in Camac Street, Mirza Ghalib Street, Gariahat and lots of other places where we would pore over old books. The biggest attraction was the Calcutta Book Fair at the Maidan. I guess the venue has changed now. Enid Blytons were staple diet, by the time I was eleven I had completed-Famous-Five, Five-Find-outers, The Secret Seven and the Adventure Series.

There was healthy competition between me and my younger uncle's daughter. She loved Nancy Drew and I was mad about Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators. She had a massive book collection courtesy her uncle Mani mama who used to run a lending library when he was a teenager. As each new year dawned the seriousness of academic excellence dawned and everyone realised that I was an absolute misfit with Maths.

Classes six and seven were devoted to Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and Alexandre de Dumas. Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers were my heroes.

By the time I reached Class-8 I had switched to Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer and Desmond Bagley. I was a man trapped in the body of a boy. I had matured as a reader and as well as a teen who had realised that his father was an absolute failure.

Fast-forward to 1998-May 1

I am at Central Station in Chennai with my mother, waiting for my father. A last chance for him to redeem himself as a husband and a father.

Chennai is a book-lover's paradise. My dad could never fathom what I wanted. My mother would give me a hundred rupees once in every two months as pocket-money. I would pain-stakingly save money and make trips to Triplicane and Moore Market to buy old novels.

June 2002

After scraping through high-school; I finally joined college-R.K.M. Vivekananda College. A course in English Literature and a whole vast new world of drama, fiction and poetry. Shakespeare and Francis Bacon were read for marks, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Tagore were read for pleasure.

Poetry for me was a fine balance between Robert Frost, William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson. John Donne and co. with their metaphysics were beyond me.

June-2005 -The Professional

An essay on Dickens won me a place in the corporate world and I started my career as an Instructional Designer. Now I had the luxury of a zero-balance salary account. After paying my mother my salary, a small portion of my pay would go towards buying DVDs and books.

Current Scenario

Five jobs later in different companies and different roles, my career continues to hang on at the precipice of uncertainty as I am contemplating one more switch. I have discovered police-procedurals in the translated works of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo-the Inspector Martin Beck series. I have also enjoyed the Inspector Morse and Inspector Rebus books.

There is such a vast ocean out there and my room is already full of books. I have a huge list of books that I need to buy and read. My mother keeps warning me that my wife will come and throw away all my books. Well that is a veiled threat:)

An affair that never began and ended before it could start still hurts me.

But my passionate romance with books will continue till the very end.

Girl-friends may come,
Girl-friends may go,
A woman might actually end up being my wife
But my one true love shall be my books alone.

Good Used-Books at Low Prices

The book-lover is bothered by the rising cost of books. Some have also gravitated towards buying pirated copies of books. In a world where everyone wants to spend the minimum to get the maximum pirated movies and pirated books are a major source of income to many entrepreneurs and source of joy to many book-lovers and movie-lovers. A Sidney Sheldon thriller that costs Rs 250 to Rs 300 in Landmark is available for Rs 50 to Rs 60 in many of the pavement stalls that dot Chennai.

But not all books make it to the pavement in its pirated form. Only the books by Jeffrey Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Frederick Forsyth, Paulo Coelho, Stephen R. Covey, Linda Goodman, Robert Ludlum, Arundhati Roy, Arvind Adiga and a few other chosen ones make it to the pavement.

The other option is to visit the many used-book shops to find old forgotten novels and comics. Indulge in nostalgia from childhood and an age of innocence when one fought with siblings to read Enid Blyton and Asterix and the Biggles series. Adolescence was devoted to the exploits of the Hardy boys, Nancy Drew and the Three Investigators.

I am listing a few of my favourite haunts in Chennai to find old books.

1-Moore Market

This has been my favourite ever since I started college and went hunting for copies of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.” Moore Market has a long chequered history. The current suburban railway complex is where the original Moore Market stood. My uncle used to say you could get each and every type of electronic item, exotic perfumes and various birds here. The biggest section was reserved to rows of book stalls. A planned fire led to the shop-keepers to be evacuated. A new complex (the current one) was built but many shop-keepers left the place. Today one finds most of the shops selling engineering books. Only about 12 shops spread across three floors sell novels and magazines. There are some shops that sell stamps and coins. The current complex has a lot of shops that sell exotic fishes, aquariums and related equipment. I visit the place and browse through the books. Some of the gems that I got here include: “An Anthology of American Poetry”(Got for Rs 350) a bargain as a new one costs about Rs 2000. The original James Bond novels by Ian Fleming at Rs 30 a piece. A new one at Landmark costs around Rs 200. Four Agatha Christie novels at Rs 45 a piece. The books look new and none of the pages are missing.

2-Adjacent GPO on Mount Road

There are about four stalls on the pavement on Mount Road adjacent to the GPO. Three sell pirated new novels. The fourth shop sells old books on a wide variety of topics. Novels starting from Rs 10 to coffee table books selling at Rs 500. I have picked many Enid Blyton novels here for Rs 10 and Rs 20. Other buys include an encyclopedia on dogs for Rs 200.(a picture book with details on breeds and health care tips for dogs). Lots of pulp fiction thrillers for Rs 20 and Rs 30.

Folks more shops coming soon. Cross-posted on Art, Books, Cinema and Music.

DEATH OF A DUTCHMAN.....

This was a novel that I picked up on the pavement. It is by Magdalen Nabb. I had never heard of this writer before and it was the book's title that attracted me to it. The price was Rs 20.(Used Book).


This is a series of books set in Florence and Marshall Guarnaccia is an inspector who investigates mysteries. In this novel he investigates the death of a Dutch goldsmith. It appears to be a case of suicide, but slowly clues and a list of suspects appear.

The book is slow in its pace and intensity. There is a good description of the city of Florence and some of its landmarks. Who murdered the Dutchman?

Read the book to find the answer.

A decent book but this will not appeal to readers of fast-paced thrillers.
I need to check if I can get other books in the series for the same price.

AT THE BOOK FAIR

The 32nd Chennai Book Fair is on at the St. George's School Grounds opposite Pachaiappa's College, Kilpauk.

The usual trend continues this year and the number of stalls offering Tamil books continues to increase.

The big offer this year is offered by Indian Thought Publications, Mysore. The complete works of R.K. Narayan for Rs 1,500.

Software stalls offering lots of stuff ranging from games to rhymes. The big draw was the Shakti Office stall. Visit www.shakti.office.in to find out an Indian alternative to MS-Office.

All the usual stalls were there and the kids this year were surprisingly less. It was more of the 20 to 35 years age-group that was in prominence.

Food stalls doing super business. Sri Krishna Sweets being the highlight.

On the pavement adjoining the Pachaiappa's College a group of old-book sellers have set up shop. Books for as low as Rs 5. There are some real gems available for Rs 20 go check them out too.

Comics....

It was just another Sunday afternoon and I had nothing better to do. So I took out some cartons from the attic and cleaned and dusted the books in them. I discovered a bunch of old comic books. It was like discovering a diamond. I quickly kept the remaining cartons aside and looked at my collection.

I was transported to my childhood days. Indrajal comics-Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon, Tarzan and a host of other characters. I still remember the pleasure of searching for old comics with my uncle in second hand bookshops in Kolkatta. It was nostalgia all over again. I shut the door of my room, relaxed in my easy chair, and started reading my beloved Phantom comics.

Phantom was my favourite hero, this was before someone gifted me a Batman comic. Things and times may have changed but the sheer pace and intensity of the Phantom comics guaranteed 100% entertainment.

Today my 10 year old nephew has Jetix and all the Japanese animes for company. He does not know what he is missing.

Well times change and the tastes of a new generation may vary.
But I am sure all of us however old we may be still enjoy reading Indrajal and Amar Chitra Katha comics.

Books

I went on a book-buying spree this weekend and bought the following books:
"Charlie Brown you don't look 50."
The Abominable Man.
The Locked Room.
Murder at the Savoy.
The last three are police thrillers written by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Originally written in Swedish. They star Inspector Martin Becks.
If you like reading crime fiction, this series is bound to entertain you. Try reading them.

I also managed to read two David Baldacci thrillers last week-"The Camel Club" and "Hour Game." Seriously entertaining the tension never stops, but I felt that "The Camel Club" was a bit too long. Waiting for the next batch of Baldacci thrillers that my friend has promised to lend me.
So long.

The End of an Era, Sidney Sheldon dies-

I got my first Sidney Sheldon book at the age of 13, I think it was "The Other Side of Midnight." I was captivated by the sheer brilliance of the author, suspense and drama, that made me turn each page with eager expectation. As the years progressed I graduated to serious literature and philosophy, but Sidney Sheldon along with Robert Ludlum and Jeffrey Archer are my favourite authors.

Sidney died yesterday at the age of 89, because of complications related to pneumonia. He donned a variety of roles in his long and eventful life. Jewish by birth, he won his first prize of $ 10, for a poem that he wrote as a ten year kid. During the Depression of 1929, he held various jobs. He worked as a script-reader and eventually emerged as a script-writer himself, writing plays that were staged on Broadway. He served in the War as a pilot and used his experiences in "The Other Side of Midnight." He wrote and produced serials for television, with "I Dream of Jeannie," being one of the most loved comedies on American television. He wrote his first novel at 50, and then there was no stopping him, as his books broke one record after the other. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages and will be cherished as an author who was loved by many people across the globe transcending all boundaries of differences.

My favourite Sheldon books are-"If Tomorrow Comes," "The Doomsday Conspiracy" and "Master of the game."

Adieu Mr. Sidney Sheldon, you will be missed...