Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Capital's Book Romance

Delhi is not only city of Nijams, nomads, politicians (read as dull), moneyed (read as money but no time), labors but also of book lovers. The intellectual class of society has lot in this city when it comes to books.

Books & Music, Pavement stall, Paharganj: With India's paramount educational institutes & nucleus of coaching centers, city has lot to offer for everyone. The capital's love for books is apparent in a variety of pavement book shops and weekly bazaars, which are crammed full by people looking for some 'new' book to romance with.
Fact and Fiction, Basant Lok: For book worms (read as Avinash), there is Sunday market at Daryaganj, PVR Priya and PVR Saket offering used books at pocket friendly cost, one can sale of their old/read books and magazine and buy more at these stores thus making reading much more pocket friendly. There are good probabilities that books which you couldn't come across at best of book shops, you may discover them in these pavement stalls at pocket friendly price.
Sunday Market, Daryaganj: From novels to engineering books & from magazines to management you name one, you find many. Bargaining here is key factor, one must know the art of bargain and thus shop with a lady with him so that the art of bargain is executed to perfection. Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.
Maktaba Jamia, Urdu Bazar: During our engineering entrance preparation days, I along with Avinash, Rohit and lots of comrade used to hunt for books and study resources at these marketplaces as its very pocket affable and also during college days at IIT Roorkee me with Avinash, Rohit & others used to come Delhi at times on holiday and ramble out and look for books at Sunday Daryaganj market & PVR Priya (obviously glancing at girls also). It was by this time when we got inclined towards novel and Avinash's romance with Sheldon started.
Full Circle, Khan Market: These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
Jackson's, Paharganj: The collection is maddening. From Julia Child's recipes to Mozart's letters, from Princess Diana's extra-marital flings to Monika Lewinski's scandal. A lucky day could get you the first edition of a William Styron or a Salman Rushdie. Hindi is not ignored. I got my copy of Arundhati Roy's Mamooli Cheezon ka Devta (aka The God of Small Things) from here.Bargain-basement prices are another incentive. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago is available in paperback in 'first-hand' bookshops for Rs 700. Here, the handsomer, seemingly untouched hardbound copy of the same book cost Rs 100, after bargaining, of course. That copy is in my library now!. I often derive a peculiar satisfaction in conversing with the ancient and modern dead, - who yet live and speak excellently in their works. My neighbors think me often alone, - and yet at such times I am in company with more than five hundred mutes - each of whom, at my pleasure, communicates his ideas to me by dumb signs - quite as intelligently as any person living can do by uttering of words.

41 comments:

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 1:40 AM  

That was wonderful piece of bolography

Fantastic Blog

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:28 AM  

I am like a book, with pages that have stuck together for want of use: my mind needs unpacking and the truths stored within must be turned over from time to time, to be ready when occasion demands

Puja February 1, 2009 at 2:29 AM  

If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it

Puja February 1, 2009 at 2:29 AM  

lovely tour of capital book stores

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:35 AM  

For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:36 AM  

I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals.

Dr. Pragya bajaj February 1, 2009 at 2:36 AM  

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum -- of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.

Dr. Pragya bajaj February 1, 2009 at 2:37 AM  

that was fantastic post 4 book luvers

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:37 AM  

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:37 AM  

The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.

Dr. Neha Srivastav February 1, 2009 at 2:38 AM  

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, the worst. What is the right use? What is the end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satelite instead of a system.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:38 AM  

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:38 AM  

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:39 AM  

Our house was a temple to The Book. We owned thousands, nay millions of books. They lined the walls, filled the cupboards, and turned the floor into a maze far more complex than Hampton Court's. Books ruled our lives. They were our demigods.

Dr. Palki Vajpayee February 1, 2009 at 2:39 AM  

There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.

Dr. Palki Vajpayee February 1, 2009 at 2:39 AM  

that was very nice n informative post

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:40 AM  

The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:40 AM  

She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.

Er. Paayal Sharma February 1, 2009 at 2:41 AM  

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away.

Fantastic bolography

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 2:44 AM  

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.

Austeen Sufi February 1, 2009 at 10:24 AM  

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me

humanobserver February 1, 2009 at 10:28 AM  

I am not a huge fan of novels but I loved your images...they look so lovely....

Deepak Barua February 1, 2009 at 11:04 AM  

Hi Prachi, nice informative blog, I used to visit daryaganj to find cookery books during my training time. You can check out Om book store in vasant kunj and south ex for all good cookery books, they really have very good collection.
Thx for your motivating comment and I have a request pls don't call me sir, I am not that old....

Shilpi February 1, 2009 at 11:47 AM  

that was gr8 bolography of delhi's book markets...Excellent

Ritu February 1, 2009 at 11:50 AM  

A book is a human-powered film projector (complete with feature film) that
advances at a speed fully customized to the viewer's mood or fancy. This rare harmony between object and user arises from the minimal skills required to manipulate a bound sequence of pages. Each piece of paper embodies a
corresponding instant of time which remains frozen until liberated by the
act of turning a page

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 1:40 PM  

nice informative post

Anonymous,  February 1, 2009 at 1:42 PM  

good informative post N outstanding blog

Swati February 1, 2009 at 3:45 PM  

wonder the amount of books on sale n it goes through so many hands and mind ...

Sagarika February 1, 2009 at 4:55 PM  

that was nice capture accompanied bt lovely info

Ragini February 1, 2009 at 5:18 PM  

Thanks for sharing. I had no idea that PVR Priya & Basant LOk also have pavement book markets. Till now have heard of Daryaganj only. Will try and visit soon.

Ritu February 1, 2009 at 10:16 PM  

thtas really very informative post
blog is doing wonders
Keep it up!!

Anonymous,  February 2, 2009 at 2:26 PM  

good post...fantastic blog

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