Lazy Sunday Photo- More People who Read Books Needed in This World?

More People with Books rather than Bombs are Needed in This World!

From the Sunday Daryaganj Book Market

Daryaganj Sunday Book Market

One of the few pavements in Delhi where Maradona, Chambers Dictionary and Jigsaw Puzzle can be found on the same shelf. I still remember how annoyed my nephews were with me that I just brought this picture home rather than the Maradona book itself. And it was almost two years back that I went there! About time I headed that way once more.

Holy Cow? No, Bloody Hell!

I saw the cover at the Daryaganj Sunday Book Market and I was sold over, more so every book at that particular shop was for Rs. 20. That is how I ended up with ‘Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure’ by Sarah Macdonald. Apparently, Ms. Macdonald had visited India in her twenties and had a horrible experience.

So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India- and for love- she screamed “Never!” and gave him, the finger. … But eleven years later the prophecy comes true.

And therein lies a boring story. Five reasons why I didn’t like it.

5. The Ending is Predictable: In spite of the tone set by the author from the first few pages of the book you can see the ending from a mile and I am not convinced why it had to be that way. And the book has every formula that one can have in writing a book about India.

4. The Great Village of Delhi: I quite agree that Delhi is polluted, it has the people with worst driving sense in the world, living here could be nerve wrecking experience on the account of the harsh summer alone. But how can you convince me that Vasant Kunj was a village in 2000? That the author never found a McDonald’s or Wimpy or TGIF in 2000 but she saw more elephants and snake charmers in her stay of a few years than I have seen in my entire lifetime in India.

3. Bollywood Anyone: Ms. Macdonald has a brush with quite a few stars of Bollywood. Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan definitely make an appearance in this book. Yaaaaaawn. Another formula?

2. Cribbing, cribbing and cribbing: I know traveling in India is not easy and people do not have the same idea about personal space and the infrastructure sucks. But, if even one single sight of this country fails to move you and you cannot pen in two lines positive about it till we get to the last 10 pages, I get bored. I guess Ms. Macdonald should have gone to Disneyland after all, as she kept mentioning. It sounds more like her kind of place. She cannot see anything but red ass mangy monkeys everywhere. It seems we Indians drugged her and dragged her out of Austraila, instead of she coming out of her own sweet free will.

1. Religion, Religion and More Religion: More than half the book is about Ms. Macdonald’s brush with one religion or the other, while her boyfriend roams the sub-continent on various assignments for Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She is reluctant about religion initially, calls herself atheist and ends up at Kumb Mela. Then, she complaints that she found the place full of devotes and religious activities. What else will one find there? If you do not want religion, stay away from Kumbh like me! It is like saying I went to the Mall and found so many designer labels there! Later, this self proclaimed atheist embarks on a tedious (to the reader) journey of discovering the various religions like, Hinduism, Islam, Sufis, Parsis, Buddhism etc etc etc. Pick this one up at your own risk, don’t tell me later that I didn’t warn you.

Bringing you the Sunday Book Market at Daryaganj

I once lamented for the lack of libraries in my corner of the globe but then we do have a good thing and that is the Sunday Book Market of Daryaganj, New Delhi. It is a paradise for book lovers and mostly the books are second hand and dirt cheep. Back issues of magazines like Vogue jostle for space along with books on philosophy and everything in between. Bargaining is a sport and an art form here.

If you ask me for directions to the place, I will most certainly get you lost. But let me try. Go to the Ajmeri Gate side of the New Delhi Railway Station and then from there take an auto or a rickshaw, and those good folks will drop you to the book market within no time.

My first stop was this shop where a sale was going on, I could pick up any book for Rupees 20 and we (H and I) took our time picking up quite a few. I am reading one of them, it is a travel book and soon I am going to curse it to no end on my blog.

These nice folks (sellers) were quite willing to get photographed and it was at their ‘shop’ I clicked the Maradona picture. I was seriously ticked off by my nephews for bringing only the picture home and not the book.

This kid and the young lad were manning the 20 rupees sale shop (the first picture) and they too happily let me take their photographs. I hope the kid goes to school on other days.

The third seller I photographed from a distance, without asking permission. I liked the way he has a chair of books! H is very patient when I use my camera. He leaves me alone and walks to the next shop and there he waits patiently for me. That way my nephews are slightly better, they only stand at a small distance and look the other way.

Yummy street food. I am very fond of jaleebies (sweets) but there were too many flies and I chickened out. I loved the arrangement and colors of the carrots and radishes too but refrained from eating.

We had started early and the place was not so crowded but by the time we had a quick bite in a restaurant and emerged, the place was crowded like anything.

Tu jahan jahan chalga mera saya sath hoga? Can we ever leave AC behind?

Finally, this post is inspired by Akshay and his works.