04/10/2009 5:50 AM
Posted by aruntp
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Mood: creative
Near Bus Stand in our Town,
their appeared an Stall which sells Old Second Hand Books; there where few
peoples some are curiously pulling and throwing books aimlessly here and
there; some asks for Academic books; but few like me crawled inside for
searching rare books.
Books are of various sizes and of various
prizes. Some in Pounds, Some in Dollars, some in Rupees and Some in Lira… I
have also found books tagged with Schillings and Koruna. I wonder one book is
tagged in Kyat and other in Rufiyaa. As I couldn’t read Japanese, Chinese or
Korean; there where books written in picture languages; I curiously asked the
owner “Is it Japanese Book?” I got reply immediately “Do you know
Chinese?” There are few Chinese books here. In our small town to my
knowledge I know no one knows such languages. May be like rare species of
birds. I could see few German and French Books also. I know that few
Universities near by are having academic courses on German and French. But I
couldn’t see anyone speak those!
Once I tried to study German But
dropped. Then I started reading Russian…But I don’t know meanings and
pronunciations; just I know characters. Then went to study Spanish… No use.
All I know is to identify what language it is written. But I am master in
English. It is a Universal Language. Once I noticed in my computer that there
are few different Keyboards in English also.
I could see Dracula
staring me in the heap of books. It was reddish as blood. I looked the Tag it
is in Dollar but I want to pay just a few Rupees for that. The owner said
Rs.50! The book was printed 20 years back. I could find only a dollar on it…
If you are buying this same book 20 years back; I must have been giving only
Rs.30 or so as Rupees value that much only. Now a dollar worth Rs. 52.00 or
so… I don’t know exactly. But I calculated. Is this owner cheating the
consumers? I asked him to give it for only Rs.15.00. No sir, any book you take
it worth Rs.50.00. Price is fixed. Oh…I told him that “before twenty years
it was just a Dollar for that; Now you are taking One Dollar for this; that is
full amount!”. The owner became furious; his face became Reddish, his eyes
began to sharpen, he twisted his wrist, looked sharply and asked boldly to me
“You want that book….(terrifying)” It is really bloodsucking affair. I
know I have a copy of Dracula in my home Library, which I bought for some
Rs.75.00 Ten years back. I have read it twice or so and had seen few films
narrating it.
There where rare dictionaries one I found it are
Hebrew… other Greek and here also German and French dictionaries are there
plenty. There where old Windows-95 manual.. I thought if it was there in my
hand a few years back! I thought there may be some Macintosh books, but
nothing seen. Most of them are interested in Personality development books and
also I could find some hundreds of books dedicated for it. I was here
searching for some Parapsychology in that bundle… No I could see one book
related to it “Parting Visions” by Melvin Morse MD… and some books where
fresh as it is like “Understanding Abnormal Behavior” and “Psychiatric
Manual” but too old to chew the theory inside. Few books are there on Birds,
animals and related to Environment. I am interested but when I asked the owner
he told that it would cost about Rs.250.00 approximately. I checked my pocket.
One of the Books was written by the famous Ornithologist “Salim Ali”. The
real book, costs around Rs.1000.00 now. I searched again if there is any book
on Moths. Nothing.. I found. I telephoned one expert in the research field on
Butterflies. “Is there any books available on Moths in India?” Answer came
in “One or two and one book is published by Sanctuary Asia from Mumbai”
Oh… Most of the Environment and Nature related books are too costly as they
are printed in Multicolor and extreme good quality paper. Common people could
not afford it. I can also find one “How to sell your Photographs and earn
thousands of Dollars” I just looked into that book with interest as I had
few photographs which I have taken. The book was too old and dated around
1970’s and the Catalogue was out of Date!
I looked the heap of
books and start digging a large hole into it…immediately some thing caught
my attention. It was a line “A supernatural sensation” wow… I thought I
must loose Rs.50.00 for this. I just read the title of the book “ingers”;
the book was a torned stuff. Inside it was “Fingers by William sleator”.
The book has 197 pages in all and was yellowish. I asked the owner “whether
some good piece of this book is available?” Answer came “We don’t
know…you can search inside it…?” but I was unlucky to get a fresh copy.
I took the book to my home and started with the first page”YOU’RE NUTS,
Bridget,” I said sullenly. Followed with “I was stretched out on a bed in
a dark little hotel……” it goes; but I couldn’t found few pages after
Page number 26 to36. The 26th page end like this “I had to slap and pinch
him like crazy to get him up into the chair at the little desk. He
folded….” Finished now I should read page 36; Chapter 3 starts here… “
It must have been a rotten summer for concertgoers in Venice…” The missing
pages must be costing more than the book. I imagined that if someone slept in
between a film shown from a theatre! Even though something of the story is
lost; one could feel the whole thing is lost. After I just looked inside the
cover page of the book ‘DISCARD’ I could read that word; is this book
freely available to the bookshop and the whole Rs.50.00 is gone as profit for
him… Who asks? If asked he may scold and at the end beat me up… Doesn’t
matter! Any way “A Book is a Book” and it is full of
Knowledge!
I went back the next day to the same shop and handed
over the book and told the owner “Some pages are missing” the answer came
“Are you particular about those pages…” “Yes “I answered. I told
him that this book is on some Supernatural phenomenon written on the character
named Humphrey the famous “wonder child” of the piano.
The
owner smiled… “We don’t want to know about that book. We are concerned
about money only. If you don’t want that book throw it on the heap and take
some another book and go away”. I didn’t throw away but took back and read
the whole book but imagined what may be there from page 26 through
36….
