Sushant Chaudhary’s World

Shopping, it is so uncharacteristic for men.  But they do shop. Sunday afternoon, I walked out of office to grab a Quick SUB. On my way to SUBWAY, I looked at Crosswords store. A store I used to visit so often. Used to read so many books form there sipping coffee.  Today I thought of doing some window shopping, and stepped in.

Right at entrance, was new arrivals section. A section from where, one starts hunt for books.  As regular, new arrivals section had all new books, then my last visit. None repeated.  This was time I cross checked my wallet for my budget. Wallet screamed no money for books.  Since stepped in, I restrained my self making immediate exit. Also books on self were tempting. I went through shelf by shelf.  Most popular, Crosswords recommends, Fiction, Indian Fiction and so on.  I picked certain book for first time, glancing through cover brief, prologue etc. Each books smelled virgin. A smell that mesmerizes me of  some serene hours I had spent with books. Each book was retaliating, as I placed them back on shelf.

I walked past Classics sections. A section which I thought should never be touched. But between my last visit and now, things were changed. I had a noesis influence of living and writings a Century back. I wanted to understand what was causing this noetic behavior. Seemed I was most influenced by movies like “Kate and Leopold” and “Ever After” (Cinderella story). I started browsing though books. Shelf had, classics, something was strange. I could find out a same book, with three different publishers, being placed on shelf, had never seen it before.

Classics section had following books,

1. A TALE OF TWO CITIES                                by      Charles Dickens
2. ADAM BEDE                                                   by      George Eliot
3. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND  by      Lewis Carroll
4. ANNA KARENINA                                           by      Leo Tolstoy
5. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS                                   by      Jonathan Swift

I walked to attendant on floor of shop, which I know from 2 years now and asked him, “How did it ever happen, book, with 3 publishers and on same shelf”. He brought all 3 copies to me explain. He said all 3 books have same story, Word by word. Only thing that matter was number of pages, font, Quality of pages, Quality of print, and covering. Hence, same book, same story was priced differently by each publisher. I could not believe that prices varied from Rs. 325/- to Rs. 80/- for same book.

In between something happened, I decided to cash on opportunity. I grabbed 4 classics, with minimalist cost and raced to counter.  Paid for it, with Credit Card, and was happy. As I walking out of store, started analyzing, what had changed. I was determined to buy a book. I still grabbed four of them. And I was happy. And to little or say 1%, I understand, why our counter parts never return home empty handed. Why are there shopping bags always full?

Experience, Thoughts, general books, Price, publication house, shopping