Mostly Miscellany, some MFS

Its been a hecticy, HUGELY productive week. Loads of work cleared through in Bombay, Vapi, Daman, Pune and now the last 2 days in Bangkok and back to Madras for a possible day or two.

One trip to Emporium's Kinokuniya already done. Theres one book in the bag - Travels with a Tangerine.

Will be leaving for another round just before leaving for the airport later today - after i make my mind up and pick two from a long list of Where Im calling from, Stephen Fry's Making History or The Hippopotamus - a few more noted down on paper subject to whats left on display.

Um, before we switch subjects - Ive decided that i am going to stop buying books in madras from now. You end up buying up some trash just because theres nothing else interesting on display. The folks at landmark ought to learn from Kinokuniya - there's roughly the same amount of shelf-space - but the books on offer are like much better in terms of quality, diversity.

On to another subject - I had earlier acquired a copy of Amit Varma's 'My Friend Sancho' - mostly because i was curious (Im sure every1 who reads his blog is) and its extremely cheap. Ive got through it in the last 2 days here. While one is sure to be reminded of a certain Chetan Bhagat - there ARE definite differences - noteworthy, in my opinion.

While on this subject - Bhagat deserves all the ass kicking he got because of writing something as commercial as '3 mistakes of my life' (or was it 5 mistakes?) - but there WAS that trace of originality in this first book - 'Five point someone' which made it stand out.

MFS is the story of Abir Ganguly, a young reporter living in Bombay and events occuring over a period of two weeks of this life. The whole book is 75% first person narrative, 25% conversations always featuring Abir with other characters or in some cases things like some funny illusional objects. (like the much hyped, but poorly used Talking geck0)

Before we get on with the review / gyaan - heres a typical passage from MFS - typed out, verbatim:

I tend to wisecrack a lot because of which i am not taken seriously.

When i was in college, a girl i had the hots for once told me that it was impossible to have a conversation with me because i was always dispensing one-liners. I realized that my wisecracking was a nervous tic.

When it came to that particular girl - Roma, she was called - all roads led to Roma in those days. I was terrified of making a fool of myself by saying something stupid. I was terrified of saying nothing at all, because i was so nervous that i couldnt think of anything but her lips and breasts.

(Actually her breasts: I just wrote 'lips' to sound a little respectable .) (Im kidding) So I'd wisecrack.

At first it would work, because chicks like guys with a sense of humour.Then they 'd get tired of me because they wanted something besides the bloody sense of humor. Anyway it did get me further with Roma than with any girl before her. We held hands while watching a film in a theatre.

Ruined the film, im telling you. But i did feel proud afterwards, as if i was no longer a virgin.

The book essentially is about a hundred odd pages of stuff similar to the above excerpt.

As anyone reading his blog will probably know - Varma writes short, incise, sharp stuff. With that in mind, it appears to me that MFS is like one of those ideas which went like : 'Ok.. i have this Angst-filled-Bong-Abir Ganguly character thought out, inspector Thombre, Journalism thing.. some interesting idea about illusional objects talking to Abir, Angst, Witty monologues, nicely sarcastic one-liners and my already rampant obsession with sex & bad words' and somehow finally it had to be somehow written up and published

- i dunno maybe to pay bills or something - without bothering about a lot of other things - lots of gaps in the story, the plot does not interest you one bit (hmm wait a minute, there is no plot! if you think of it that way) - its almost as if Varma wanted to get over with it and move on.

That said - now that ive finished it up - its easily readable (I read it on the Plane, in the Loo, on a bus - mostly sober, sometimes drunk and sometimes hungover - Now show me 1 book which is as easy to read as this :x) and fun in most parts.

One cant help but think of The Catcher and Salinger. But Varma, im guessing, needs a lot more patience, depth, a stronger storyline, more deeply illustrated characters and the discipline. But is a decent enough start and MFS is worth an hour or two (On a plane, in the Loo.Drunk/Hungover :x)

Ok. Thats long enough.

Had a great time here in Bangkok over the last 2 days. Great time at work. Feel happier than ive felt in months.

Did you know that :

Half a bottle of 4000 bhat/bottle Remy Martin Brandy + 4 rounds of Absolut Vodka (Raspberry flavored) + a totally B grade, 3 hour long adult cabaret show (All Courtesy Sh & Sk) + Really late kabab, salad dinner which ran into the wee hours of yesterday morning + 2 Hour foot massage = Sleeping through 3 alarms + Going red-eyed to morning meeting + Extremely upset stomach + feeling like a total juvenile asshole.

(Ok. Just before any1 gets any wrong ideas: I was totally joking about the foot massage and was hugely playing up the boozing part. But then this is how Abir Ganguly would have narrated.No? Heh)