I love books. I love to caress, smell, flip through, and cradle them. I love to gaze at the fonts, scan the story, admire a sentence, get lovestruck at the arrangement of words, marvel at phrases, memorise the lines. I love to read each word like a grandmother sending the baby to sleep, study the subtext and the context like a literature professor preparing for the next morning class, let myself float through the era and immerse myself in the world the author has painted with voices and experiences and memory and fantasy. So when my rich friends shoot for fancy pubs on weekends and when the poor ones head to chai-sutta kiosks, I give myself up to an entirely different kind of addiction market.
Just by the Delhi gate metro station, you’d find the world’s most beautiful place, a small Sunday book fair that is a goldmine for bibliophiles, particularly the poorer lot. I had my own Disneyland moment when I first visited this place. Since then, I have made it a habit to travel there rather often.
Stalls after stalls filled with all kinds of books- from encyclopedia to rare prints to bestselling fiction to NCERT to Manga to Mediterranean cookbook to medical tomes to MBA prep guides to posters and what not. You will run out of steam before you map the length and breadth of this universe. And the plethora isn’t even the most charming aspect of the place. The best thing is the price, which is insanely low. Only a philanthropic monarch with a spiritual desire to go broke can undertake such a business venture. Otherwise, it just befuddles me why on earth in a world where every nut bolt and screw is turning into diamond nuggets, these books are sold for cowries.
If you skip a day’s pizza and decide to invest that money in books, you’d be returning home with at least 10 books. The only catch is to be a bit relentless and shameless. Because getting books here is a hunt. You have to get your hands dirty, scanning through heaps and heaps of books, racing against others, until you hit some jackpot. And let me assure you- you always hit a jackpot if you pursue enough.
So the first time I went to the Sunday Book market, I collected my own little stack. In the image, I am trying to protect it from my greedy roommate.
The second time I got a world war 2 history book for ₹150, US history for ₹100 and Salman Rushdie hardcover for ₹50. I also pulled out The Finkler Question from a heap of Lady Chaterlee type romance paperbacks.
The next time, I bagged three Dickens tomes for ₹250 (my mother would be proud of this bargain). I got Lajja, McEwan, Eliot and The Silent Patient for ₹50 each.
On my last visit, I got Anna Karenina for ₹120, and City of Djinns for ₹50. Rest of the books ar ₹50 each.
If you decide to pay a visit, don’t forget a bag, some cash, and a bottle of water if you are going in summer. My favorite time is the rainy day of course. Here’s how it looks in monsoon season.
Here’s an image of a small section of the bookshelf I have built in the last 6 years in Delhi. It’s cheaper than the cheapest SIP. Just spend ₹350-450 per month on books. You’ll have your own library in a few Years.
roastedmoongfalis 