The Sunday Haul (on 21-09-2025)

Just recovering from a severe sinus infection and feeling rather weak I had decided to skip Abids and rest at home but I changed my plans after Hari called to say he was coming to Abids. It was a bright and sunny morning last Sunday in Hyderabad, and the forecast for the next week was that it would rain during the weekend from 25^th due to a Deep Depression since it looked likely that it would rain the coming Sunday also. So I decided to make hay while the sun shines and started off by skipping the sellers at Chikkadpally and heading straight to Abids where my friend was waiting. 

On the way to meet him I saw a copy of a book with such an attractive cover that I instantly picked it up. It was a beautiful copy of ‘Ancient Tales & Folklore of China’ by Edward T.C. Werner, a subject that I am very interested in so I bought it right away. I got it for a hundred rupees. 

The next find was a copy of ‘When We Were Orphans’ by Kazuo Ishiguro with a small portion of the cover and the pages below torn off but that did not deter me from buying it. It was a faber & faber first edition, and I had also not read this Ishiguro novel so in it went into the haul. 

Later I sat with Hari in the Bench café in one of the side lanes and talked over omelette, bun maska, and ginger chai for a long time.