Delhiwale: Contemporary art in Iraq, and other improbabilities

Pity the poor rich

Pity the poor rich. They too apparently deserve sympathy. Delhi’s Sunday Book Bazar has a book devoted to them.

Delhiwale: Contemporary art in Iraq, and other improbabilities

“Pity the Poor Rich” once surfaced at this capital institution of discarded possessions. The decades-old bazar moved from Daryaganj’s paves to nearby Mahila Haat grounds in 2019. The bazar’s booksellers traditionally scouted mohalla kabadis for books to sell each Sunday.

Sadly, truly eccentric books are increasingly becoming harder to find in the bazar. Cheaply printed bestsellers have overrun Mahila Haat. Academic books and stationery are abounding too, which certainly are useful in a hopelessly practical world. But, dear reader, consider the citizen who merely wishes to discover the peculiar books an earlier generation cared to read. Slowly-slowly, as the bazar draws bigger crowds and attracts its own satellite stalls selling food and bags, unusual titles are giving way to more predictable stock.

Mercifully, interesting bookstalls remain. These sightings span many Sunday excursions.

“211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do” promises a busy childhood. For grown-ups, there is “40 Fights Between Husbands and Wives.” To fight politely, they might consult “Complete Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen.”

Then there is “Sex in Fungi”—even the academic section has its distractions!

Among the sightings are the relics of an extinct nation. “Lenin in Soviet Poetry” sits alongside “Painting of Soviet Turkmenia”—a superb art book. There is also Rear-Admiral I. Kolyshkin’s “Submarines in Arctic Waters,” published by Raduga Publishers, Moscow. “The New Soviet Psychic Discoveries” asks how close the USSR is to using human super-sensory powers for military purposes. The question has outlived the country.

Elsewhere, “An Anthology of Yugoslav Short Stories” preserves the vanished country within its covers. And “Churches of Pakistan” and “An Anthology of Brazilian Prose” await readers who had not thought to look for them.

One Sunday, found in a pile: “L’art contemporain en Iraq,” French for “Contemporary Art in Iraq.” For those of us who scarcely know Iraq beyond Saddam Hussein and wars, an entire world of painters lay among the discards. Where else would we even learn it existed? Once, the bazar yielded such discoveries by the armful. Now, finding even one takes luck.

“Encyclopedia of Cage and Aviary Birds” has two birds on its cover, apparently consulting each other. Perhaps they are wondering how all these books ended up here.

To help them out, next Sunday, O browser, keep an eye out for a book about the bazar itself. Who knows you might spot “The Sunday Book Bazaar: Daryaganj and the Making of a Reading Public in Delhi,” published this year.