Mumbai Meri Jaan

If you happen to read three relatively recent books on Mumbai, Shantaram, Millennium City and Sacred games, you will not fail to notice that Mumbai continues to be the most captivating city in India both in terms of dreams and aspirations on one hand and the reality. Shantaram is a narrative of the experiences of a man, Millennium is part fiction part truth and Sacred Games is a pure fiction based on "what possibly happens" in Mumbai. But if you read them together, you will realise that so far as Mumbai is concerned it is difficult to tell where fiction ends and facts begin. To me they appeared interchageable so far as the great city is concerned.
Another striking point is that once you start writing about the city, you just can not stop. Look at the size of all the three books I mentioned.... each of them looks and feels like a brick. Of course Sacred Games takes the cake followed closely by the other two. It would seem that the authors just could not stop writing. And if you keep in mind that all three books describe incidents of only a few years and not decades or centuries of the city's history - you ought to be impressed.
However, missing is all these mega narratives, although there are slivers of this in all and most notably in Shantaram, is the life of the ordinary person. It would be fascinating to chronicle the life and times of an ordinary citizen with all its ups and downs. Unfortunately, I do not read Marathi very well and have not had an opportunity to look for Marathi books on the subject. I am sure there are a few around. However, I have had the opportunity to read a four volume biography of a Bengali who was born in 1899 and became famous after he fled home in Calcutta. Among the various places he fled to was of course Mumbai. The name will not be known today but he was a cult director in 1930s and 40s making such movies as Yahudi Ki Beti. Premankur Atorthi was his name and his voluminous biography is titled "Mahasthabir Jataka" .
Not too many people can read Bengali these days, I am therefore, planning to translate the book and I can assure you Atorthi's description of Mumbai before the first world war will give you goosepimples and put many of the recent authors to shame. Especially fascinating for me was his description of pavement dwellers and fighting among gangs of beggars.
I hope I will find some time to soon to start translating the book.

Inflation in Amar Colony

5 years ago when I moved into a new locality in Delhi, Amar Colony behind my residence was the nearest market one could go to for sensible shopping. But then situated in the middle of a "refugee" colony with houses built like little steel trunks stacked on top of each other, there was not much to the market. You went there only when the posher shops in GK1 markets did not provide the services or goods that you might just require - shortening a new set of trousers, colouring a dupatta, buying note books, art papers, razai or fresh samosas or locally made farsan. You get the slant.
Over the years, there has been a cleaning out process, the toy shop has become so big that Vikki, the owner, young that he is can still dream of giving Hamleys a run for their money in his lifetime, the local milk and paneer shop going by the now famous name of Gopala actually stocks Mishti Doi as well as multigrain bread, there are a few export huts where you can buy original addidas and nike at "affordable" prices, the local confectionary, Junejas, is stocked with all sorts of colourful bottles including a few of English mustard, and packets of exotic chocolates. The Nokia shop looks swank, the Coton showroom looks is full of posh ladies - the crowd of course comes down from as far as Defence Colony and GK2. The small tailor shop, the razai shop and the momowalas are still around as are the cycle rickshaws, but certaily there are more Honda cities and Corollas than Maruti Zens parked all over the place.
This is the market I frequent now and on my last visit, the toy shop known rather sweetly as KiddiLand had a queue at the entrance, inside it looks more like a godown where free toys are being distributed than a well stocked shops frequented by doting parents from Defence Colony. At the milk shop Gopala, it took around 10 minutes to get the attention of the salesperson, at the humble stationery shop at least 10 teenagers were crowding and mobbing the elderley owner. And I did forget to mention, the newly opened Cafe Coffee Day was full too. At Junejas, one had to take recourse to the elbow trick to find one's way. Even the humble but good GP who is gradually building up his practice, now charges Rs 200 at least per visit and has patients lined up.
Those who say we are hit with 12 per cent inflation must visit Amar Colony and breathe a sigh of relief. The news of inflation has not yet reached these parts.

what is happiness

don't know:)
but I am happy in a way for my age::)
I can eat where i want to
I never have to go to a place where there is no loo
I can fart when I want to
I can buy the cd I want to
I can watch porn and people think I am senile
I can abuse my coworkers, and they say he has the right to do so
I can come to office late and my colleagues are happy that i at least turned up for work
I think my daughter is the preetiest and the brightest in the class
I pee with the rim down, ohters can go to the alternative loo
I can sing aloud in the loo and people generally say I sing well
I have the time to read one book every night
I can say fuck off to my employer [ if i see them]
I think people who work for me take me to be good
I love people I love
I hate people I hate
Many more......................................
I am generally happy