Monday, July 17, 2006

Weird

I take a train from Vashi station to Wadala. I am dressed in complete rain gear. As I look around for a seat, I find one in the adjoining compartment and I hurry to take the seat. Unknowingly, I sit on the hand of the man who is sitting next to me. He is a middle-aged man who seems to looks a lot older than he actually is. I profusely apologise to him. He does not say anything. He puts his hand forward. I stare at it not sure what to do and he asks me for my hand. I put my hand forward with trepidation. He looks at my hand, holds it up and then kisses it. Its a normal kiss, not wet, not too long and not too short with the right amount of pressure.

Strange??

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Books

Its been a good week this one and I managed to complete 2 books. One is Janardhan Thakur's All the Prime Minister's Men(for some reason I can't seem to find this book online) The book cover says-

A devastating work of investigative reporting, the book contains revealing portraits of Indira's fawning courtiers. It unravels their psychologies, and, in the process, lays bare virtually the whole range of human inadequacies and frailities.

Interesting book. It talks about the debauchery of Indira's coterie and how that lead to a continual debasement of the Indian polity. It did throw up some suprises like Ambika Soni and Pranab Mukherjee(our Honorable Defence Minister) and their role in the tumultous 70's. Its a decent read with no real surprises and chronicles the machinations of people like V.C. Shukla, Bansi Lal, D.K. Barooah and Rukhsana Sultana and Dhirendra Brahmachari.


Just finished reading- An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. Nice book though complicated in many parts especially with all the erudite terms like first contrapunctus, the Carpaccia, vibrato and Sonatas and yet there is something to be said about how the music in the book keeps the story alive and not the other way around(thankfully!) You can feel the elation when they play Bach's Art of Fugue during an encore performance and the reason for the fraternity that Michael shares with his tononi. Good read.

Books, books, books, babaloobala books. Its raining books here, those of you on the scout and don't mind searching for that rare e-book, here is your Mecca.

http://worldebookfair.com/Collections.htm