Delhiwale: Living with rare editions

Delhi bibliophile Ashok's rare book collection includes historic editions like the Constitution of India and first translations of the Bhagavad Gita.

Goosebumps! This Delhi apartment is crammed with rare editions. Collecting them is Ashok’s “janoon,” his passion. Like any committed Delhi bibliophile, he first developed the palate for prized volumes in the city’s legendary Sunday Book Bazar. This afternoon, the former furniture-maker picks out five books from his horde of hardbounds (leaving out many others that are equally precious). He sportingly agrees to pose with the selection--along with wife, the gentle Parag, who gives her name to their publishing house.

This Delhi apartment is crammed with rare editions. Collecting these is Ashok’s “janoon,” his passion. (HT)

Constitution of India

Perhaps the most historic souvenir of contemporary India, only a thousand copies were published of this large lavishly produced and artistically illustrated hardbound. The final pages include the “photolithographed” reproductions of the signatures of all the 284 members of the Constituent Assembly, starting with President Dr Rajendra Prasad and ending with Feroze Gandhi. The aforementioned reproductions appear disconcertingly real, as if the long-dead signatories must have stepped out of Ashok’s book-filled room just moments ago. The last page gives details of the book’s calligraphers, etc. Published in Dehradun.

Bhagavad Gita

Touch it with reverence. This is the first edition (1785) of the first Sanskrit-to-English translation of the sacred Bhagavad Gita. The title page says—“The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon; in eighteen lectures, with notes.” Translator, Charles Wilkins, is introduced as “senior merchant in the service of the honourable The East India Company.” Pages show yellow discolouration, accentuating the venerable volume’s profound grace. Printed in London.

Jungle Book(s)

These two illustrated Rudyard Kipling volumes were printed by Macmillan and Co. in London, in 1894 (Jungle Book) and 1835 (Second Jungle Book). Both first editions are bound in calfskin leather. The gloss of the soft hide is sleek, the pages are gilded, and the colour of the spines has faded from an intense blue to a restrained green.

My Experiments with Truth

This is the first Gujarati-to-English edition of Mahatma Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth. The two volumes were published by Navjivan Press, Ahmedabad, in 1927 and 1929. The books are bound in green “original khadi cloth especially chosen by Gandhi.” The make-in-India binding is particularly impeccable, exuding a super-refined sense of craftsmanship almost unattainable these days.

A Passage to India

E.M. Forster’s classic novel was first published in London by Edward Arnold & Co. in 1924. This exclusive light brown hardbound in half-cloth binding was simultaneously produced by the same publisher in a limited set of 200 copies, each signed by the author. Ashok’s copy is numbered 75. It is spine-tingling to turn to the title page, the fingertip tracing the confident slopes and curves of the great writer’s handwritten sign.