Book Review: A House for Mr. Misra (4*s)

If ever there was a book, that can be described as visually descriptive, this has to take the cake.

The journey begins from the markets of England that are so vividly described, you can almost smell the fresh produce.
Winding its way through the monsoons of Kerala, the traffic, a few tense situations (not revealing the reasons why Mr. Misra had to be hospitalized, however the manner in which he was treated is is an insightful read) and eventually to the house that is supposed to be built.

Do they manage to build it? Does it work out the way they want? Well you have to read the book for that but I can reveal the end leads to a temptation that is extremely hard to resist.

A House for Mr. Misra, by Jaishree Misra is a delightful insight into what goes behind the scenes in Gods own country. And when I say what goes behind the scenes, I am literally referring to insights on how the average Mallu thinks, behaves and interacts with people from within and outside the state.

We discover their way of life, their territorial behavior and through incidents discover what life is like in Kerala.
Is it easy to build a house on the beach you ask? What kind of laws intervene? Can one discover loopholes? How far do you stretch your morals when faced with adversity? All this and more are entwined in the story.

A House for Mr. Misra, by Jaishree Misra is a tongue in cheek, humorous tale of the Misra's attempts to build their dream beach side home. (Why did they consider building a new home when financial challenges were abound is a mystery but they took the adventurous route that had a tale to tell).
Kudos to Jaishree Misra for not getting too critical of the people in the book for she had every opportunity to speak out against them.

What she has done instead is narrate a story that's fast paced, intriguing, a thread bare version of the situation they faced written in a simple, contextual and beautiful manner thats an extremely easy read.

What also stood out is how the laws are drafted in this country. For every clause there is a caveat and for every caveat there is a clause. Like wise, for every person who is honest and helpful there is a someone who doesn't believe he is here to help another soul.

All in all a very good, interesting and insightful read.

Book Review: Murder In Paharganj(2.5*s)

A murder thriller has to leave you gasping to know more.

The anticipation of the progress of the story has to be so riveting that you don't want to put the book down. It has to tease and cajole you into waiting for a twist, the next turn of events.

Instead what Kulpreet Yadav has penned in his novel, Murder in Paharganj is an attempt to turn this around an share details upfront of almost every crucial moment, thereby killing the suspense.

Admittedly this is not a suspense mystery that requires detective style investigation and clearly Vicks Menon is not a detective.

Murder in Paharganj is fast paced in its story line and has some serious potential in the sub plots and credit is due for not sermonizing certain aspects of the book.

It has a variety of characters that have interesting facets of emotions to deal with and yet one wonders if the characters were flushed out further, their could literally be spin off novels on each of them, especially Jalaluddin and ACP Rao.

While the story journeys through the death of Israeli woman Sherry Bing, who had no reason to be murdered and the subsequent investigation into why was she significant to the story, it leads her Killer and investigators from Delhi to Udaipur and off all places Bangkok and subsequently back to India for the tepid climax - no surprises in the book and likewise no surprises in this blog, except for the actual climax for which you better read the book.

Vicks Menon has some way to go before he can be cast into a hero figure. He may be battling for his job (having lost his recently), love (girl friend also left him recently), his drinking which apparently was largely to blame for the loss of job and love and most importantly his self prestige, all at the same time but his journalistic skills are hardly a saving grace in this matter.

There is no great research, investigative piece or stroke of brilliance that really stands out except perhaps his determination to keep going despite his brushes with death.

How an international spy can leave a journalist alive despite being identified by him and being followed around is something that truly beggars belief.

Vicks girl friend is also highly under used in the plot. Her intelligence and contribution could be put to better use. Its like in bollywood movies where the heroine is only around for some eye candy and to throw in some romantic scenes and songs.

Personally I also think Jamie aka Jalaluddin would have made a subject for a normally or indeed ACP Rao.

All in all, its not a book or series I would include in my must read list.

Totally skip able.

New Scam - Toy Horses power automobiles and not Arabian ones

Why we have slow moving traffic in Bangalore, now solved.

In a surprising turn of events, it was revealed that automobiles in Bangalore although marketed as having Horse power are in fact powered by toy horses and not true blue blood, race horses.

In a series of  candid interviews with manufactures and companies, officials claimed that what they were doing was not illegal.

"After all we only promote our cars and bikes as having horse power. We do no quantify that these are only show ponies or toy ones and no customer has asked us details about the same."

Further investigation revealed that - the change in culture in Bangalore is part of the reason automobile manufactures get away with such practices. With the huge influx of people coming in from Northern part of India and out side India - automobile purchases are no more about utility and convenience but more about vanity and show off.

What they want

What they get - part 1

What they get part 2

People buy BIG, FANCY Cars only to show off to the world that we HAVE ARRIVED and focus on the looks and color and useless features like glass holders, coat hooks etc.
Test drives are done to see if the car is comfortable, accommodates the newly acquired beer belly and if there is enough space for women to keep their emergency make-up kit.

Even at the time of delivery - no customer ever opens the bonnet to check if the engine is in there - but they all inspect the car from outside to ensure that it looks as classy at the time of booking.

This reflects in the sad state of how the traffic is in Bangalore. While density of traffic is a concern, most drivers of these "BIG" cars are seen lumbering along.
If you closely observe you will see cars cross signals at an excruciatingly slow pace, vast open spaces in front of drivers which they cant cover, not due to poor driving skills but the lack of REAL power and people driving in the center of the lanes because they cant get the damn vehicle to move over to the side and make way :)

Another reason is the magnets (click here) on the roads of course ;) ;)

Bangalore City roads

Bangalore City roads

To be continued...

Bangalore Images credit -Vadakkus 

Fox Life presents Tales from the Bush Larder with Kiran Jethwa

The stage was set at Shiro's UB city.

The quintessential Bangalore winter was about.

The anticipation of some unique tasting food was in the air.

What makes this food unique you ask?

It is not so much the out come -  as what goes in that matters.
If you subscribe to this theory than this is one experience you should not miss

Tales from the Bush Larder - a unique TV show on FOX LIFE featuring celebrity Chef Kiran Jethwa went live on 29th Jan 2015.

Chef Kiran Jethwa does some live cooking and gives us a glimpse into the show

 Watch some earlier episodes on Youtube here - Kiran Jethwa's Show

The show explores how food, tastes uniquely different, when made with ingredients and unique cooking techniques from the wilds of Kenya.
Chef Kiran Jethwa has his own very popular restaurant in Kenya, where he lives and experiments on his cooking.

What we had is a list of well known and much loved dishes all cooked with ingredients from Kenya. Add the Shiro's magic touch to the food and this was one memorable experience.
My personal favorites was the Bao, Chicken Satay and the Shushi (which I dont normally eat :) ).

Catch the show on Fox Life Every Thursday and Friday at 8.00 pm.
Show starts on 29th January 2015

My co-foodies