Benefits of Blogging

 You never know what it might lead to. Many years ago, I reviewed a book I had read, and also sent the link to the author, from her mail ID on the book cover. That led to a friendship with her and her husband, who also wrote a book on a different subject. I met them a couple of times, and she guest lectured at IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad where I was. That was Devapriya Roy, author of many books, starting with The Vague Woman's Handbook, that I had reviewed.

Yesterday, I got a pleasant surprise from another author, Priyanka Gupta, who wrote.. I am "a Computer Science graduate from IIT Delhi turned itinerant writer, and my 1st book, a travel memoir, Journeys Beyond and Within... has just been released." 

She also offered to send me a copy, so I can review it on my blog, which she is a reader of.. a pleasant double surprise. So, as I said, you never know.. 

Women of Substance

These are not mythical entities, but real ones. Three such accomplished women visited IMT Nagpur recently for a guest lecture.

Sandhya Sekhar was till recently, CEO of a unique Research Park near IIT Chennai. This is an initiative that leads India-based corporates to do research that is likely to transform products, services, processes, even raw materials, or fuels, with India in mind. Needless to say, original research is sparse in India, in most fields, so this is a great idea. It also took a lot of time and energy to sell the concept to all the funding agencies. But the baby was finally born, and is going great guns. Quite incidentally, Sandhya was a classmate at IIMB around 30 years ago.

Devapriya Roy is a recent friend I made after reading her impressive first book, The Vague Woman's Handbook. A great communicator, and a very friendly, unpretentious soul, she has another piece of fiction, The Weight Loss Club (weight loss has to be fiction, you might say). She has also modelled for Keo Karpin earlier, and is pursuing a PhD in natyashastra from JNU.

Ruchira Chaudhary is a consultant based out of Singapore, who does this for the likes of Michelin in the field of Organisational Development and allied areas of H.R. She was introduced by another classmate, a mutual friend.

Hats off to the likes of Sandhya, Ruchira and Devapriya.

The Weight Loss Club by Devapriya Roy

What I liked about the book.

This book contains no advice about eating carrots instead of radish, or eating less sweets, if you are so inclined. It does, however slightly, nudge you towards exercise, and two of the protagonists fall in love with each other in so doing. So it is totally worth it, at least for some.

It has the charm of an Amol Palekar- Basu Chatterji film (think Rajnigandha), or a Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic (Bawarchi?  Khubsoorat? You take your pick). Actually, there was a film called Thoda sa Roomani ho Jaaye, which I was sometimes reminded of, in terms of unhappy people with unresolved lives slowly ‘finding themselves’. If I remember that right, Nana Patekar played a critical role in it.

It could happen anywhere. Substitute Dhokla and Thepla  for the Mishti doi and Sandesh, it could be Gujarat. Or Puran poli and Shrikhand, it could be Maharashtra. Though Calcutta is finely integrated into the story, it is not critical to it.

The characters are very real. I could identify at least a couple of people from my own life who would (did?) behave like each of these characters.  Treeza and John, Ananda, Apu, Monalisa and her competing gang of moms with a ‘killer’ instinct, the God-like tuition master Bor Da, and the college kids Abeer, Mandy, AJ and the rest. The ma-in-law takes are really reminiscent of the Lalita Pawar character in films, but also of real life haranguers-in-chief in many households.

From an educationist’s point of view, the parental obsession about their kids’ careers (usually to their detriment and with no concern for their likes) that comes through forcefully (even if it is unintended), is worrying.  Actually, the marriage obsession too, and the middle class love for NRI grooms-though I shouldn’t be complaining. I was one a good 25 years ago. Until we both decided to go desi.

The story is complex, because of the many characters, but is resolved nicely, and the style of writing is first rate. The idea of a flash mob relevant to some recent happenings is used well in the climax. You will however, be disappointed if you were looking for a crash course on weight reduction, with diets, charts, and asinine advice. That is NOT what it is about.

If you liked Devapriya’s first book (The Vague Woman’s Handbook), I am sure you will like this one even more.

Hauz Khas Village

It's anything but. A village, I mean. It looks like a European street, in Paris or Amsterdam. It's a small cluster near a deer park (opposite IIT Delhi), where there was a Madrasa built by Allauddin Khilji. There is a lovely lake that reminded me of Ulsoor lake a few years ago. There are also nice 6 centuries old buildings which housed the madrasa.

But today, the hip crowd of Delhi and foreign visitors frequent the place, which has antique stores, art galleries, and cool cafes which have a European-sounding Menu (and prices). The desi  touch comes from shops that have old Hindi film posters. And some dirt and half-finished construction- we are always creating and destroying, right?

My guides were my new friends in Delhi, Devapriya Roy and her husband, Saurav Jha, who are both  authors, in different genres- she has to her credit "The Vague Woman's Handbook", a fictional work, while Saurav is an energy consultant who has written a book about Nuclear energy. He also consults for FICCI and govt. of Bihar on renewable and conventional energy. They are also collaborating on The Heat and Dust Project, a travelogue in India, with a difference.