Yellow Pages

Classics are a drag, declared Angelina Wood,a student from Shillong,browsing for romance at Nanda Book Service in Nehru Place,Delhi. Jean Jacques Rousseaus Emilie stared accusingly at her as she ignored it for almost 500 other titles that promised rabid love and ruin for Rs 50 each.

The shop,literary neighbour to a restaurant exuding sickly sweet smells,wasnt a typical second-hand bookstore. The hand-me-downs were displayed only at the entrance,their prices flashing on neon stickers to lure customers in.

The true-blue second-hand bookwallahs squatted on the pavement with their wares. Like Bhola,who had been selling ageing magazines for over 15 years.

Leaning against a stack of Better Photography,National Geographic and Harvard Business Review,he lamented the rampant dullness of those who squatted here for a quick read,Aaj-kal sirf fashion aur interior-design magazine ka demand hai. A stack of self-help books sitting on the pavement confirmed Bholas prognosis of Nehru Places reading masses. Word Searchers for Dummies,Divorce for Dummies,and Puppies for Dummies attracted many a seeking mind,while Orwell,Shaw,the Bronte sisters,Kipling,Ezekiel,Freud,and Maugham lay in the sun,un-thumbed but hopeful.

But not all who peddled second-hand books in Nehru Place complained about the quality of patrons. Only Intelligents come here, said Yash Pal of Yash Book Point,who sold a variety of serious books on computers,management,engineering and competitive examinations. Maximum price,fifty rupees, he said magnanimously. The textbooks,discarded by students and collected by kabadiwalas junk collectors,often contained a meticulous alternative narrative notes scribbled on the edges of a page,like hasty lanterns on the sure path of scholastic doom.

Dont stand around here,go to Daryaganj, advised Karim Khan,bearded and opinionated. Perhaps the only second-hand bookseller in Nehru Place with a point of view on books,he was,however,extremely reluctant to talk. Resentful of the intrusion and an attempt to take his photograph,he hollered,Is this any way to behave examining peoples nostrils? Then youll ask me how much money I make and youll end with Do you know anything about AIDS?

His disgust at a paparazzi-like interest in his stall and nostrils notwithstanding,he did pick a book from a pile of Robert Ludlum and Judith Krantz paperbacks Tillie Olsens Yonnondio. A Virago Modern Classic,both book and publisher were rated highly by him. They Virago publish good writers; not just the commercial ones, he said.

Daryaganj,where the pavements are lined with literature every Sunday,is the repertoire that nourishes the second-hand bookstores in the city. There are around 250 makeshift shops that erupt on the footpath and sometimes spill onto the road,congregating under cylindrical pillars that support the commercial hub of Old Delhi offices of publishers,the old stock exchange,a once-ritzy cinema hall and several joints for assorted char-grilled meats.

At Vishu Book Service where Value met Satisfaction,and one could pick any book for Rs 10 only,Rocks and Minerals found itself next to An Italian Affair: A True Story of Life,Love and Travel. Moin Sheikh,a well-sculpted 24-year-old,was searching for Tips for Bodybuilders. I dont need the tips. The book is for my clients I run a gym, he said.

There were others on more serious pursuits. Mayank Mehrotra,a 25-year-old training to be an anaesthetist in a government hospital,was rummaging through a pile of comics Mad,Batman,Superman,Tinkle and Chacha Chaudhary. Its hard to find comics, said Mayank as he grabbed a fistful. Theres way too much internet and nobodys really interested in these. Indifferent to the medical tomes that lay in front of him,he paid Rs 25 per comic before vanishing in a haze of Sunday browsers.

The variety of books from pompous to pulp to kunjis for last-minute mugging is acquired from an equally wide array of sources. Auctions held by the Indian Railways as well as binders for consignments either forgotten or rejected are popular sources. Students who outgrow their textbooks and foreigners who tire of their travelogues get rid of them here,where books arrive in sacks,like mauled bodies.

Sometimes we buy slow-moving titles in bulk,directly from the publishers, said Subhash Chand Agrawal,president,Sunday Book Bazaar Patri Welfare Association. Perched on a step outside a shop with its shutters down,he said that the bazaar had been in business since 1965 and he had been here ever since. Books worth about Rs 25 lakh were sold every Sunday. Sometimes we sell by the kilo, he said.

He then dived into the books and emerged with the Handbook to the Oxford University,published by Geoffrey Cumberlege,publisher to the university,reissued in 1954. It belonged to one Chiranjiva Lal Gupta,MA,as the curlicued cursive handwriting in blue ink on the right-hand corner of the book suggested.

Ive never read a book,but I can tell if a book has jaan life, said the bookseller who had snailed his way through class VI. Keep it you wont find this anywhere else, he beamed,as he made a present of it.

There was another: Back Words and Fore Words,An Authors Year-Book 1893-1945 by Laurence Housman,that lay between glossy catalogues of Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Its jaundiced pages contained Gods And Their Makers,An Englishwomans Love-Letters,Ironical Tales,Dethronements and several of the authors works in chronological order. Subhash described the book and those of its ilk as rare. People look high and low but find that one book or dictionary or map on this patri, he declared.

While the Daryaganj Sunday bazaar was rife with fiction,purely scholastic hunts were rewarded at Nai Sarak,Chandni Chowk. Threading its way between two buildings is a slender lane aptly called Patli Gali.

A walk through the gali the well-fed need to walk sideways takes one to a hamlet of NCERT,DPT,CBCT,IAS,MBA,CA,ICWA and other textbooks.

A group of chemistry students who stood inside the Public Book Depot tossed up a few names for the owner,Osbeer Singh Makin. DS Mathur,PH Sindhu, they demanded of him,and he,in turn,shouted the names to an underling who scurried around the shop,examining overworked shelves and collapsible high-rises,before returning,triumphant,with the books.

Dhoondne se to rab bhi mil jata hai,Search hard enough and one can even find God, declared Osbeer,as he handed the books to his customers. Then,whats a book?