Hobby: Reading: Part 3

 Hobby : Reading

Part 3: Second hand books

(Pics in this post are for illustration purposes)

There were a few people near our city home in those days, who had become quite ‘valued’ for me, since they were a good source of second hand(read’near new’) books and comics for me.

The best one was the one who would sit outside a closed restaurant door, on it’s tiled surface , next to what used to be Kalamandir talkies.

He would always call me Bhaiya and, seeing me walking towards his , err, stall, he would pull out the comics and novels he would have stashed away to safety, for me. (I used to get the first ‘right to refuse’, so to speak . heh heh. ).. one of the most prized collections that happened 80% courtesy him, was my Tintin books. There was apparently some guy, who I could identify vide the pen scroll he would make all over the first page of each Tintin comic, before giving it away. And, this gent would invariably get it and keep it for me. At a time when market prices of Tintin were in the range of Rs 200, I made up my collection with just about Rs 2 each (Or, even Re 1, sometimes). Besides Tintins, many Richie Rich, and other comics, and, later, many mags and novels that I was looking for, would be with him.

The other guy was an old gent, who had a larri( four wheel cart), near the side wall of the Court area of Nyaymandir.. he would come only in the evenings(was probably working somewhere), and he also, Some unusual comics like Tarzan, Korak(son of Tarzan), some Indrajal comics that we missed, Amar Chitra Katha, et al… all would be kept aside by him for his prime customer(me, of course) to see first.

Opposite to this guy, was another cart, with two brothers who were somewhat smarter, in converting USD and UKP, before selling their stock.. however, they became quite friendly with a regular customer like me, and, soon they were also helping my collection.

One more hand cart guy, used to come only by @ 7 PM, and not regularly, he would stand opposite the court area..a few books and mags courtesy him too.

And, of course, there was Rasikbhai and his circulating library, first near the Court area, and, later, he moved to near the SSG Hospital area. In the initial years, we used to go to him, to get Hindi novels for Grandmom, and Mills and Boon books for Mom. Once in a while, I would get a children’s book from him, all these, for nominal reading charges, of course.

Later, when my hobby of writing to magazines picked up towards the late eighties, he was instrumental in saving me money, in the sense that he would lend me mags ‘first day, first show’, and, even allowed me to snip out my ‘Letter to the Editor’, or, prizes for caption contests and other competitions, from mags like Filmfare, Star n Style, G, Movie, et al. To keep him happy, I would buy a mag occasionally(their cost was a princely Rs 6, if I recall correctly).

Thank you to all these guys, wherever you may be(One passed away, I know, bless his soul ), for enriching my childhood so nicely and leaving such lovely memories.