When a banker jokes

While driving to one of the client meetings with my boss amidst hills and perfect weather I start pondering about all that I have been reading/wanting to read in the last few days. I suddenly realized that most of the fiction I read in the past was by Indian writers. Since the multi - capabilities of my boss (who btw is German) fail to surprise me anymore I ask him if he has read any Indian fiction. I hope to get a serious reply especially after he suggested to me last week that I should also try to read a little bit of history as it can be very interesting.

Suddenly he gives me an affirmative look ( I am still calculating in my head who would these authors be) and with a straight face says "RBI circulars, Analyst Reports...." and I burst out into peels of laughter. " Priyanka, you asked me for fiction and I am giving you fiction.. all by Indian authors !! "

Mumbai Revisited

Mumbai Revisited

So I get myself to writing a post again after what seems like light years and one more time this is not about anything profound. I finally broke the drudgery of my mundane existence by planning a trip to Mumbai last week end. Lot of plans went awry as I had to leave earlier than I had planned to, could not get to meet all the friends I wanted to and more so party hard !

Something however felt very different about my trip this time around. As soon as I set foot on the station I suddenly felt creepy with the stench and the dirt which made me realize how much this was a part of my existence during my stay there. I also had a sudden realization regarding the crowd and population of Mumbai city when I reached HardRock Café on Saturday night to find it more cramped than the Dadar station at 8 am in the morning. After the vain attempts to clamber for a drink at not one but 3 places I was realized that it was time to head home while it was still 12 am. The cloudy skies on Sunday afternoon however provided the perfect opportunity to loaf around South Mumbai on feet. The empty streets made me feel like I had been transported to a different era. Book shopping at Strand was pleasurable as usual and so was the brief stop at Hajji Ali but what I loved the most was the chai and parantha at the small stall behind TISS which transported me back to campus days.

It was probably not the perfect weekend but packed with experiences enough to stop me from cribbing for the next few days !