Yes, he did. Much to my surprise.
Coimbatore, being a carnivorous city, unlike Kumbakonam or even Mumbai, foraging for vegetarian food seems to have become an integral part of our visits. A visit to the Annapoorna was a daily routine but for the occasional dinner or snack we walked down to the Dosa Park which served mostly – you guessed it – dosas, but they also had the best teas I have ever had. Last week we ambled towards the dosa place after a daylong fast (I was fasting but Appa was equally hungry) as I was looking forward to my tea and a kiwi milkshake, in that order, when I noticed the Gita Press shop in the basement below a Baskin Robbins shop.
Thrilled and tea forgotten, I darted into it with Appa protesting but following me. He had no choice because he knows very well that I cannot be kept out of a Gita Press shop. His objection was not about the money I would most definitely spend but to the weight of the books I would buy! He thought I could make my purchases on our next trip but I knew better than to defer my pleasure given the limited time at our disposal on that future visit. I browsed through the available books and picked up a few copies of Hanuman Chalisa in miniature and a couple of stotra books while Appa too walked around looking at the Puranas in Hindi, Tamil and English translations. He was actually impressed by the quality of the books and the beautiful translations and suddenly decided to buy something for himself! I was only surprised that it was a Tamil commentary on the Bhagavad Gita!
I commended him on his choice and, promptly added a heavy Shiv Purana to my collection over his protest. Happily, my hunger having been assuaged by my purchases, we walked into the Dosa Park.
P.S. I have finished nine chapters of the Shiv Purana while Appa has yet to start on his Gita.
Ho, ho, ho! Your last observation – that you have finished nine chapters whereas Appa has finished none – seems to have hidden implications. Maybe you should try a bait-and-switch? Play the book on TV making it seem like a cricket match?
Sometimes I like to look at and caress my book collection, even if I haven’t read it all…
What a delightful post! Btw, how come you call Appa ‘Appa’?
Possibly because R. buying a book would be a commonplace occurrence whereas Appa buying a book would raise a collective gasp of surprise in the family!
Meanwhile Appa doesn’t read my blog so he is not aware that we are laughing at him, albeit in a gentle way!
The word for that is “tsundoku” in Japanese! But you probably know that already. Anyhow I am one of those too with lots of books at home that I may never read, sigh!
But he read the book about one of those queens!
You can imagine how bored he must have been with nothing to do! He also read All The Prime Minister’s Men there.
To elaborate, it is very difficult for us to get through the day anywhere without healthy doses of escapism in the form of TV serials, used as we have become to it! My addiction is presently to a serial that is not a Sun TV sobstory but a farce set in Mughalsarai. Appa cannot do without the repetitive NDTV or the high-pitched Arnab Goswami i.e. when he is not watching sports channels. His main addiction is to badminton in the mornings of course. So without these at hand he somehow managed to read a book. Or two!