The great book bazaar

What drags me to Daryaganj in Old Delhi on most Sundays is the lure of the weekly book bazaar.

What drags me to Daryaganj in Old Delhi on most Sundays is the lure of the weekly book bazaar. Stretching over almost 1.5 km, the pavements in front of the closed shops are invaded by booksellers who descend with all sorts of books and magazines, mostly second-hand.

There is nothing to match the smell of books. It is inimitable and defies description. But one with a sensitive nose may liken it to what we breathe when the monsoon showers hit the parched earth, so mellow and ethereal.

To the booklover, this Sunday bazaar is a veritable goldmine. Walking along the heaps of books on the ground, and turning the pages, you may suddenly come across a book you had long wanted but found the price prohibitive. Now, it is yours for a song. This bazaar is often described as the world8217;s biggest weekly book market. In some stalls an attempt is made to arrange books according to subject, but don8217;t be surprised if you find Bunyan8217;s Pilgrim8217;s Progress juxtaposed with Vatsyayana8217;s Kama Sutra! In this labyrinth, I even discovered a corner where books were being sold by weight. Imagine my surprise when, just for Rs 50, I got the bonanza of a Roget8217;s Thesaurus, Walter Scott8217;s

Kenilworth, Henry James8217;s The Portrait of a Lady and a Tin Tin comic thrown in free 8212; all in excellent condition.

You find all types of books here. A lover of fiction may find books ranging from Samuel Richardson8217;s Clarissa, the longest English novel, to Virginia Woolf8217;s The Waves, a short one. If you are a whodunnit-addict, there should be no difficulty in locating books by Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie. There is no dearth of medical and engineering books as well as comics, directories, atlases and cookery books.

The place has the charm and excitement of a flea market. If bargaining is your hobby, let this be your playground. Go on haggling till you win, and you will. Carry a bag to stuff with the books you buy. Do go armed with a thermos filled with cold water or coffee as walking in the sun may make you thirsty. The books you finally buy may be somewhat soiled, spine-damaged, loose-paged or attacked by silverfish. But all that is of no consequence since what is in the books is more important than their condition.