As I mentioned in my previous post, I am an avid reader.  I am especially enamored of books that are hard bound.  Take off that dust cover and you get a glowing jewel – ruby or perhaps jade green or deep blue with indented letters in gilt.  It feels heavy and solid and somehow rooted in your hands.  The best thing is tha pages don’t break away from the spine as they do in paperbacks.

In January 2006, I read in a local paper that there were used hardcover books to be had for I Rs 50 only (USD 1.10) outside the premises where the Chennai Book Fair was being held.  I rushed over.  I was over the moon when I realized ot was true!  I snapped up about 50 of which 40 were Reader’s Digest Condensed Books.  Of course I remembered to ask for the chappie’s business card and I made sure I visited his shop atleast every 2 months since.  My collection has since burgeoned to 100…  The list is on my Books Read pages.  I read more than half of them in 2006. 

Then I was struck by a doubt – perhaps this was just the tip of the used book market I’d unearthed – was I losing out on choice by restricting myself to one dealer… So I googled – second hand books Chennai – and up popped a kindred spirit – Mrs Fife, who seems to wander quite far south in search of those beautiful tomes.  Though I don’t share her primary obsessions of crocheting or knitting (cross stitch, a bit of tapestry and macrame with a couple of soft toys thrown in is as adventurous as I have got so far in that department), I was hooked (!) by her humorous turn of phrase…  here’s to more of her kind.

Talking of humor, James Thurber is absolutely one of my faves – I’ve re-read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty several times and it never fails to raise a laugh.  Ditto for The Catbird Seat.

Like Mrs Fife I enjoy British more than American authors – Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, Gervase Phinn (Up and Down in the Dales is a hilarious must read), Marcia Willett, …  Then why is it that two of my all time fave books are by Americans – Jack Schaefer’s Shane and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird?  Does it have something to do with the fact that I read them in my early to mid teens and they made a terrific dent in my impressionable teen psyche?  Still trying to figure that one out!

So what the progress on the pals from IST I was trying to get back in touch with?  Morten and I mail each other quite regularly, once or twice a week – he called Dar-es Salaam “paradise”.  My son says we should visit Tanzania – but I know it won’t be the same – Places, like people change, often to be unrecognizable – and after almost three decades?  No, I think I’ll stay with the memories so beautifully blurred at the edges.  Now don’t misunderstand – it wasn’t all that hunky dory when you push away the nostalgia – there were plenty of miserable moments too.  Racism, for instance, was quite rampant among several students cliques and perhaps a few teachers.  We just kept away from them and made friends with those who were not.

I managed to trace one of the best teachers I’ve had the good fortune to know.  Mr Wolpert took Math – not one of my favorite subjects, but just his sheer enthusiasm and verve made me work hard.  His approach to teaching was fun – he was and still is an inspiration to me.  I used some of the concepts he used when I taught.  He’s still teaching - now in Pennsylvania.

I mailed Anna at her office – no reply yet becaiuse she is “out of office” till the 16th.  I called DuBois – and couldn’t get through – probably will have to resort to snail mail.

Finally I traced another classmate, John.  He is a physician now living in Texas and he mailed me back – catching up.  This reconnect was especially poignant since our families knew each other very well – Syrian Christians from Kerala.

© Sosha Srinivasan