A Morning of Calm

It was time for me to experience the early morning calm at Necklace Road. A month had already passed. It had been hot then but yesterday morning at Necklace Road it was pleasant and cool. Maybe that was the reason why there were more people than usual. They were every where. Two youngsters had brought their moped right upto the lake front. People were exercising. I did not feel like sitting for long. I had also reached a bit late and the sun was already up. I left after a short time and decided to spend a longer time in Phase II; at Adarsh with the papers.

Mercifully, Adarsh was just beginning to get the first of the visitors. I got a nice table for myself, one with a view of the road. I always sit in that same table. It lets me see who is entering the hotel and also look at what the others are hogging. It is quite hard for me to believe what some people eat so early in the morning. An elderly, stout person sat at my table and proceeded to vanquish half a dozen biscuits and a similar number of chota samosas which he washed down with a full cup of tea. Then there was another youngster who had two buns of bread with his tea. Some people like to get a good start to the day with a full stomach I guess.

I went through the two English papers I had bought spending close to an hour reading almost every thing. This is one part I like best- reading the paper leisurely sitting alone in a small hotel on a bright Sunday morning. The rest of the world could wait, I had the papers to finish. I had a marriage to attend in the morning so it meant I could not go to Abids not even in the afternoon. Interestingly, The Hindu carried an item about someone I see regularly at Abids, a white haired gentleman of considerable girth and who intrigued me a lot because the booksellers were very deferential to him. He turned out to be the man behind a rare books store- Haziq and Mohi, at Charminar. I have to pay a visit to that store sometime soon.

I did not want to miss another book related event- watching ‘Just Books’ on NDTV Profit. Blogger Amit Varma’s ‘My Friend Sancho’ made it to the best seller list of the program so I guess I may have to buy and read it soon. One of the interesting items on ‘Just Books’ is the one where celebrities show off the books on their shelves. Last week it was Suchitra Krishnamoorty and this week it was the turn of Chiki Sarkar of Random House. Of the five books she mentioned as her favorites, one was by Haruki Murakami- The Windup Bird Chronicle .Strangely, this is the book I am looking forward to find someday either at Abids or in some second hand bookstore.