Twilight Troubles

(The twilight zone captured by me at an upcountry location in Maharashtra)

Craving for  the warm toasty feel of a new book. The smell that envelopes you when you open the book for the first time. Yum. The feel of the pages.Crispy.The tingling sense of excitement when you are about to dive right into it.Exhilaration.

I was dying to revisit this familiar headrush. Finally, during the evening twilight hour, I raced to the only "befitting" bookstore in Mysuru.

I so miss my Landmarks and my Crosswords. The sections were pretty clearcut-Fiction and Non-Fiction. Well, I thought thats a start. It had less of books and more of fancy stationary stuff,greeting cards,stuffed toys...the works. Anyway there were some 7-8 civilians my age group more or else getting into each others way and peering at every hard back copy on the shelves.

Suddenly, there was this quiet wail somewhere. I turned around in time to spot a young damsel in distress. She ranted about the dismal array of books around. This got me thinking.

I had spent a good 30 minutes in there and had found nothing worth picking up so far! I was downright indignant about the fact that the only noteworthy topic seemed to be an IIM or an IIT grad's story. Every author in the bookspace was doing a Chetan Bhagat. He should seriously be flattered for isn't imitation the best form of flattery?

Come on, give it a break Aren't there millions of other things for an interesting tete a tete and not just rambling tales about campus life.

And then there were a lot of our old classics. Thank heavens for those.Bless their dear souls. I picked up one of my favourites- PG Wodehouse and walked out all smug and yet a tad sad that there would never quite be another one like him.

Is there no contemporary author out there whose works I will read and re read gleefully till eternity comes?

So, that was the Mumbaikar penning down her grievances from the royal city of Mysore.

The saturday night fever has begun...