Bargaining at the Sunday Book Bazaar at Daryaganj

“You can get classics for as less as Rs. 20 there!” This and many such enticing remarks, heard over years of existence amidst fellow bookworms, ensured that I finally made my first visit to the Daryaganj Book Bazaar on last week’s breezy pleasant Sunday, with a friend who shares my affection for all things literary.

After meeting at the Chandni Chowk Metro Station, we boarded an auto-rickshaw that charged Rs. 30 to drop us at the Bazaar, essentially a long sidewalk with books littered everywhere on it. Many of these were competitive books that reminded me of my dreadful high-school’s science books but there were novels too: classics intermingling with cheap crime thrillers, Indian bestsellers lying beside French authors and so on and so exciting.

“It’s a flea market, bargain as much as you can,” my father had advised before I had left home.

Now, I am not that good at bargaining, but I was determined to give it my best shot that day. We began browsing, essentially looking for canons in that sea of low literature.

I spotted The Inscrutable Americans at a small stall.

“75 Rs,” the stall owner said.

“20?” I took a chance.

“No,” he said.

“Tell me the right price then.”

“Minimum 40, not less than that.”

“Finalize at 30,” I said.

“No,” he said.

I moved on. “He would call me back,” I told my friend. He didn’t. I had to come back ten minutes later and pay Rs. 40!

So went on the haggling and shopping. We also soon found the Rs. 25-30 books and went crazy picking this and buying that. At the end of the sidewalk, I spotted Wodehouse at a stall.

“Bhaiya, 20?” I asked.

“30.”

“Minimum 25.”

“No.”

I moved on. “We are crazy, leaving Wodehouse over Rs. 5!” my friend said.

“He would call us back,” I said. He never did. We never came back for the book. We are crazy.

When we thought that the sidewalk has ended and with it the stalls, we didn’t know the sidewalk never did end, and neither did the Bazaar: both continued as we turned right at the end. As we turned left and then right again after that, we were still in books’ company. After buying 7 famous titles for Rs. 220 at one stall, we chanced upon The Lord of the Rings trilogy lying unnoticed at a stall. “We have struck gold,” my friend said. “We are buying this for Rs. 20.”

“In that case, we have struck diamonds!”

“Bhaiya, how much?” my friend asked.

“100.”

“Be reasonable,” I said, trying my best to control myself from bursting out laughing. My friend took over the bargaining.

We came up to Rs. 40, the shopkeeper was down to 50. We began leaving. “He would call us back,” I said.

He did!

I didn’t go back; my friend did. She came back a minute later with the thick book in her hand. We sat down on the stairs of a building nearby, laughing at our good fortune. Two minutes later, we discovered that a page was missing from the book. Not that good a fortune then, I thought. “Don’t worry, I have the pdf!” my friend said.

The stall-owners soon began packing up. But we weren’t done shopping, even after having bought 25 books! As I was checking out books being stashed into sacs at one of the stalls, my friend hired an auto.

It was time for us to go to the Delhi Book Fair and laugh at the prices there!