Hanifa Book Traders

Our shop is at number 4, right across from the Kalima-E-Taiyeba Mission School in Syed Ali Guda. If you’re in Mehdipatnam, you know the area. It’s always busy with parents dropping off kids and people rushing to catch the bus. The shop itself is 12-2-342/1/A, and it’s packed from floor to ceiling. We have stacks of books everywhere. Sometimes it feels like the shelves might give way, but they’ve held up for years. I spend a lot of my time dusting the covers and trying to keep everything in some kind of order. It smells like old paper and ink in here, which is something I’ve grown to like. We don't have a fancy computer system to track everything; usually, I just know where a book is by looking for the right stack. It’s a bit dark inside because the light from the front door doesn't reach the back very well. When the school lets out, the noise level goes way up and we get a lot of people passing by. It’s a simple trade. We get new stock in, we unpack the boxes, and we find a place for them. The floor is concrete and the walls could probably use a fresh coat of paint, but we are too busy with the books to worry about that. It’s a local spot where we know many of the faces that walk in. We just keep things moving one day at a time.