The best book store in N. India.

Before I start, I don't mean that there is a better bookstore in S. India, I just don't want to label anything from N. India as the best of India. Partisan reasons, I hope you understand.

In Shimla I saw this bookstore on Mall Road. This place exclusively sold old books. And what old books they were. A great collection of classics and odd books. There was a book that was published on the occasion of the accession of Hyderabad into the newly formed country of India!! It was an antique and I definitely wanted my hands on it, along with a couple of other good books. But the problem was that the shopkeeper knew what he had in his hands. Each of the books cost as much as, if not more than, new books. I should have bargained because the books were wonderful but I just felt a little bit ambushed by the prices and didn't feel I would be able to ask for a fair enough price, so I left.

The shopkeeper btw, was a little interesting in his own way. He was sitting in the back of his shop, in a chair. He was about 50-60 years old, didn't seem to be in any sort of hurry at all, in any sense of the word. It was like he had been gathering these books for a long time, and he was going to sell them to pay for his retirement and if he didn't manage to sell any, he'll just live off of his savings. He sat there with a cigarette in his hand and a small electric heater over which he boiled water for tea. I tell you, he was right out an R. K. Narayan short story. If I didn't have my idiot manager in the store and if I wasn't in such a hurry myself, I'd have sat with him and talked to him about his life history.

My idiot manager meanwhile, executed his very harsh bargaining style where he would mock the vendor for quoting a high price in order to get him down. I don't understand how he doesn't get thrown out of buildings more often. In any case, after asking me what books I was looking at, he saw me look at the book in his own hand. It was an erotic novel! He smiled sheepishly and said, "Yeah, since it's cold, I thought I'd buy a spicy book." Good god man!! That's too much information. I was scared as hell to be sleeping in the same bed as him!