Bookish life’s Paradise: Daryaganj

I don’t like Delhi as a whole, and I have good reasons for it. There is an endless list of the bad sides of Delhi; believe me the topic can never even end for a life time. Here is a fact, “Every bad guy has a good guy inside”. Delhi necessarily isn’t the bad guy but its got bad habits, however there is some good in it too. For me one of its good sides is Daryaganj. Daryaganj isn’t neat, not the best place in the world, again there are bad sides in it too. It’s filthy- yes, it’s unhygienic-yup, it smells-A LOT, is it the best book lovers paradise? Duh!

The Daryaganj Book Bazaar is 4 Km long which all most
looks endless because of the crowd. You'll have to be a
serious book lover to get through it. 

If you are in Delhi and you read, what are you doing?! Go to Daryaganj! It’s a huge second hand market which almost looks never ending. Besides selling books it’s also famous for its special Non vegetarian food and there are numerous publishing companies who have there offices established there like Oxford University Press, S. Chand & Co. and how can I forget to mention Rupa Publications!  The second hand book market is opened only on Sundays from 7 am. You can buy any book; I mean literally any book from new editions to your grandpas old generation of love stories. The best thing about it is that there are no price ranges in this market, if you’re really good at bargaining. 

Last Sunday, I went to Daryaganj by the Metro, as usual it’s so crowded at times you can’t even see the book you want to buy. Believe me; you have to be a sincere book lover to pass through the masses of crowd. The pavements are filled with 200 book sellers with no space to even walk rather then choose the book you want. Random pickpockets are always lurking beside you looking for every chance of steeling. I was so protective about my books; I carried my backpack in front of me, this way there was no probability of my beloved books being stolen.  Anyway, I stayed there for at least two hours and I bought ten books for Rs.800. All of you who don’t really read much might think that was a pretty hefty price. Only it wasn’t. If you go to Connaught Place the heart of Delhi, I swear I would have gotten those books for minimum of Rs.2821. So practically, I am showing off that I saved up Rs. 2021.

Books Name	Author’s Name	I brought it for (in rupees)	Original Price (in rupees)
Godfather	Mario Puzo	100	221
Emma	Jane Austen	100	125
Message in a Bottle	Nicholas Sparks	100	220
The Memoirs of Geisha	Arthur Golden	115	476
Anne of Green Gables	LM Montgomery	20	135
Catch 22	Joseph Heller	120	250
Gone With the Wind	Margaret Mitchell	100	281
Melody	VC Andrews	20	447
The Lost Hero	Rick Riordan	125	666
Total=10		800	2821

I mostly bought classics from here, since they are the cheapest, if you look carefully above; I even brought two books for Rs.20 which are in a good condition and I am so sure that one of them has never been even read. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan was released in September 2010 and it’s only seven months with a small tear at the back and its selling for Rs 125! Shocking, isn’t it? If I had looked closer enough I am sure I would have even gotten my self a book at least two months old in the same price.  

There aren’t only novels I could see really fat Engineering books lying in the pavement, old NCERT books, a book about how to become a successful Psychologist, all sorts of magazines from Femina to ELLE, Harry Potter books for Rs.100 and many Hindi novels selling for Rs.5.  Books weren’t only in English and Hindi, I’ve seen Urdu, French and amazingly even Italian. In Daryaganj you need patience, good bargaining skills and enough body resistance to not to hurt you neck while stooping down looking for books because trust me my neck still hurts.

In the end, you can go to Kahn Market to show off how much you love books by their prices, hardbound covers and lovely delicate pages. But a book lover like me who doesn’t earn at all but wraps its penniless soul to the dirty second hand books lying in the pavement just for the sake of enjoying a book; ignoring its deformities, its dirt filled cover and its torn old rusty pages. 

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The Indian Memsahib is BACK

Suchita Malik the author of The

 Indian Memsahib: The untold Story 
of a Bureaucrat's Wife

After the Rupa Incident, I expected this book to be at least mediocre. I had gone through so much distress and panicking and happiness to attain this book and what do I get? Nothing. Besides my mothers happiness for the correct print.

The Indian Memsahib: 

The Indian Memsahib is about an independent, ambitious women called Sunaina who falls in love and marries and IAS officer called Raghu who is extremely naïve and honest. In the process she sacrifices her job for the cause and travels along with her husband. She accounts all their travels, mixed with challenges and the ups and downs of life.  

My Opinion:

The Indian Memsahib: The untold story of a bureaucrat’s wife. Oh, really? Indian Memsahib my foot! Suchita Malik should have written The Indian Sahib: The Q & A story of an IPS Officer. Period. Nothing more and nothing less, this title best describes the book.

My example:

“What do you do in you job?” asks the wife.

“Oh, me? I  do this and I do that, but you don’t really wish to know the detail but,” he hesitates,

“oh! Please do tell! If you don’t, how will I continue with my life? You telling me about your job is a dream come true!” says the wife.

 “ anyway if you want to know then I…” The husband speaks dragging on and on and on.

“How do you do it?” inquires the wife again looking so hyper oozing with excitement.

 “I know everything. I am just so honest and determined to do my work.” Says the husband naively.

I hope that clears the explanation of my title. Three-Fourth of the book consists of Sunaina's questions and the answers of her husband Raghu. Another problem I faced while reading the book was the fact Suchita Malik tried to uses as many synonyms as possible.

For Example:  

Sunaina is sitting comfortably at ease and relaxed in the couch. Raghu comes back home he is in tension , worry is grasping him and he is extremely anxious.

I hope you understand what I want to convey. If you want to ignore my words and keep reading it please look out for wrong grammar, bad sentence formation and spelling errors, that at least might keep you entertained. Seriously, what do Indian editors do while reading…can they even read?

For being the topping among the worst books I have EVER read

Additional Information:

While surfing google I just found that there is a second book to The Indain Memsahib which just released this February. The new book is called the The Memsahib Chronicles: A story of Grit and Glamour. Its twenty years ahead from which the Indian memsahib ended continuing the story of Sunaina who now describes the privileges of her world, but doesn’t agree with them in a positive point of view.  I am ever so sorry Mrs. Suchita Malik but I sincerely don’t wish to read this, I am extremely sorry I cant give you another chance especially after reading The Indian Memsahib. 

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Bragging On…

Jane Eyre Movie Poster-2011

In my last blog I bragged a lot about how my, “I Hate Classics” slogan took a completely different turn.  To continue the bragging I thought about introducing one of my favorite classics aside from LOTR (Lord of the Rings). 

As usual almost most of my book adventures take place at the book fair and because I buy mostly all my books from my one and only favorite book fair store it starts out with Rupa Publications. The main reason for me buying this book was because it was quite cheap, Rs. 85 then the other shops who were selling it for at least a 100. In fact, Jane Eyre wasn’t even in my list of ‘books-to-buy’, I just happened to be at the classics section immensely happy about how cheap classics are. Which is my favorite aspect about classics, even if I end up despising them, they are just so cheap it doesn’t even matter (like the day I brought Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë it cost me only Rs. 30 and it was almost new!) To continue about Jane Eyre -I liked the cover and didn’t even bother to read the back and bought it.

Jane Eyre:

Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Brontë
in 1847 is one of the most renowned
classic of all times.

Jane Eyre is an orphan raised by an aunt who believes her social status to be far beneath her own and her family. Being a nine year old, she has a nature to rebel and has a free spirit making her poles apart from the other people in the 18^th century. Amongst her cousins, her alien personality regularly gets her into fights with her eldest cousin who punishes her for touching his future inheritance. She is sent to a charity school called Lowood by Aunt Reed who can no longer support her foreign nature. After residing in the school for eight years, when she reaches adulthood she leaves to becomes a governess in Thornfield Hall. The master of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Edward Rochester, falls in love with her and asks her to marry him. Jane soon realizes that she has made the biggest mistake of her life by saying 'yes' soon the marriage is cancelled at the last minute, and Jane flees from Thornfield alone without a single penny. In her new life she has a new economic and social position, but eventually makes her way back to Rochester, a man now having no economic stability all because his insane secret wife, who was the reason of Jane and Edward's broken marriage.

My Opinion:

Classics are known to get on your nerves. For most human beings they are defined to be long, tedious and exceptionally descriptive. That can be one reason why you should read Jane Eyre because it eludes all these characteristics of a so called classic. No words can be great enough to describe it, perfectly. Its that kind of a book which is adored by everyone be it a little eleven year old girl to a fifty year old man. There is something magical about Charlotte Brontë’s style of writing that pulls you in and captures your imagination. If the protagonist is a female and the reader is a male, believe it or not the male reader will dissolve into the character of Jane. All of you who can’t read sad love stories, that is only a small aspect of Jane Eyre's story, in truth its a touching novel about the self discovery of a independent women living in the 18^th century. Its through her words you will see the trauma of that era, the fear of God and the power of love. (By the way to all of you. ‘I-cant-read-sad-stories’ the ending is happy anyway.)

For being one of the best classics I have ever read, deep insightful and full of meaning.

Additional Information:

The movie “Jane Eyre” has just released on 11 March 2011 (the date is not valid in India). It stars, Mia Wasikowska (actress know for her performance in "Alice in Wonderland") as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender (actor known for his performance in "Inglourious Basterds") as Mr, Edward Rochester. I am really exited to watch the movie but as my saying goes, to enjoy the book read it before watching the movie. 

Movie trailer:

  

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The Rupa Incident

The account of this story is real and of course it did happen quite recently actually to say the truth it ended  today at precisely 13:00 PM. Without further ado let me start the story.

It was a cold day and the wind blew anonymously causing the leaves to shiver and tumble down to the quite filthy and unclean Earth. For Sanskriti Bist (yes thats me!!) it was quite an unusual one as well. The Rajdhani Train had been 17 hours late causing much havoc to her daily life routine. But her daily life had been practically  abnormal for the past fifteen days. She had been traveling along the hills and valleys of Kerela and swimming through the troughs and crests of the shores in Kovalam. Now being back in Delhi the world seemed so different for one the pile of trash had replaced the Palm trees and the smell of sea water now definitely stank.

As promised by her parents she was all set to go to the Delhi book fair! She was determined to go even though the train had brought her late to Delhi. A chill of excitement awaited her. How many days had she waited for this phenomenon? (Ans. 363.242199 days) She had prepared the whole year (except two days) very hard for this day making list of books she needed to buy, preserving all her pocket money and doing enough research to make her book fair brilliantly organized.

Many books were brought and money was exchanged. So, the book fair ended with her deeply satisfied. She was in complete bliss reading one book after the other. If only life could be a utopian one! But of course in every story there has to be a villain and this is a story. So, eventually this too has a villain but this villain is cunning its the most frightening villain ever exited till 13:00 PM this afternoon. To many it is know as the "The Indian Memsahib."

“Does it make any sense!” Sanskriti Bist’s mother told the her one day but nevertheless finished the book [The Indian Memsahib] and then complained that the pages were mixed up. Oh! The helplessness Sanskrit Bist would have felt if she were ever her mother! But the world isn’t like Sanskrit Bist, her mother didn’t mind and told her to forget about and not to worry about the book it was only RS.195! WORRY! She intensely worried and the book was RS.195 that meant a lot to her. She thought about many books she could have bought with RS.195.  Obviously, her sense of patriotism towards books did not vanish by any chance.

The next morning she sent a mail to Rupa Publications and Company (the original publisher of The Indian Memsahib) about the book and the problems that were faced by it. As usual her mom didn’t agree saying most probably her mail wouldn’t be replied. Now, that hit her hard, she hadn’t given a thought about that. What if that happened… and then the dark side of the force appeared illuminating-

Sanskriti Bist’s Ideas of thrashing Rupa Publications:

1.Twitter: Tell everyone to Re- Tweet till its a global phenomenon! [ Follow me -(http://twitter.com/ sanskritibist)!]
2.Write in the newspaper (HT city's got a column Meri Dilli).
3.Write in my blog.
4.Write in my Facebook wall.

That is the problem with human beings they conclude quickly without know the root of the problem. As for Sanskriti’s case listening to others and falling into their trap of fiction and mostly not having faith in herself and mainly significantly in Rupa Publications & Co.

Sometimes the light has to conquer the dark in this case Rupa Publications did give Sanskriti Bist a mail in the morning. Anonymously without even telling her gave her a surprise by delivering the correctly printed copy of ‘The’ Evil ‘Indian Memsahib’ which caused her and the Rupa Publications so much trouble till 13:00 PM!  So the story ended with a few heightening jumps from Sanskriti Bist who later from sheer excitement typed the whole story in her blog.

THE END

A very big THANK YOU to Rupa & Co [Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd. 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi,110002].  And the biggest thank you of all to Tanuja who practically made my year so much more better my delivering that mail to me [by 'reach... range... reading pleasure']! Thank you to the whole team that contributed to make my mom’s book come back to our place!

As for the readers this the real story but not as intense as I wrote it! To Suchita Malik who has written this novel if you ever read this which the least likely I am sorry for doing your novel a bad Publicity.[To inform you my mom loved The Indian Memsahib even though it had a few pages missing!] How can I forget @Cambodge Bist: Thank you so much for saying that my last blog was the Best Blog Ever!! It meant a lot!

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