💬 Sunday vegetable run is the best 90 minutes of my week

Every Sunday I'm up at 6:15 and at the market by 6:45. No alarm needed anymore, my body just does it. It's a small open market near our colony, maybe 40 stalls. By 8 it's packed and the prices go up. I carry 2 cloth bags and a list that I never follow. The list says tomatoes, onions, coriander. I always come back with something that wasn't on it. Last week it was a bag of guavas. There's an old man at the 3rd stall who sells only leafy greens. He's there every week, same spot. He's never once told me a price. He just weighs it, looks at me, and says a number. I've never argued. The first time I tried, he said, then buy it from the supermarket. I paid. We've been friends for 2 years now. He doesn't know my name. Weekday grocery runs are a different thing. I go after work, tired, and grab whatever is in front. The Sunday vegetables taste better too, or I've convinced myself of it. Same tomatoes, probably. My mother laughed when I told her about the guavas. She said I'm buying like my father. He used to do the same, come home with random things and a big smile. The only rule I have is no phone. Not even for payments, I carry cash in my shirt pocket. Last Sunday I forgot the cash and had to walk back 800 metres. The stall guy waited. He didn't even take the guavas off the scale. Just said, go, I'm not leaving. That kind of thing doesn't happen at the supermarket. Try it once and see.

A bag of guavas that was not on the list is how every market visit ends for me too.

Friday evening tea on our building terrace, since about 2022. 5 or 6 of us from different flats, after Maghrib. Someone brings Osmania biscuits, someone brings samosas. Nobody plans it, it just happens. We talk about water supply, cricket, whose son is getting married, the rent going up. Nothing important. It's the one hour of the week where nobody looks at their phone.