Disclaimer: There may be a bit of bias about this review. 1) I know the author 2) my wife knows the author 3) my wife knows the author’s MIL

In January 2012 without too much fanfare the book was released. Suddenly the author was in the news, congratulations were being given and it was being talked about in Twitter, FaceBook. I decided that along with my monthly/quarterly quota of flipkart order I would check it out.

Bam, next day at work got a courier in brown cover with no return address. In these days of terrorism, asked my assistant to open it, before realising I did not have one (cost cutting). Opened it slowly and it was the book “The Reluctant Detective” by Kiran Manral AND duly inscribed. Whoa!

It went with a lot of other books on my bedside shelf (11 fiction, 4 biz & 37 kindle download), laying forgotten, till last week. My daughter reminded me that she had read it and found it funny, and never realised Kirsn Aunty wrote such funny things.

Started reading it on Friday night.

The first impact - Jeez this seems to be a live story! Given her penchant of tweeting about her brat, Honda driving hubby and weight psychosis.

As I progressed further, started visualising the location, people, apartments sometimes with a smirk, sometimes with a smile. If you ask a hardcore fiction reader like me, there are no twists, turns, edge of the seat stuff. But it keeps a smile as Kay bumbles thru giving the impression of should I or should I not?

The end leaves, with the thought - Yeh Kay kabhi nahi sudhergi and will be back.

As a first time author, a good effort amongst her myriad activities. Would have preferred it a bit crisper/tighter around 165 pages. Pricing is just right for people to buy and read it. Marketing it using social media and read outs will ensure a couple of repeat prints. AND yes will read the second one too.

“Any new reform in India is often clouded by debates and discussions about its need and viability. Opposing a change comes naturally for the self appointed so called public messiahs of the country. One such reform that has not been able to meet its due fate is the issue of FDI in retail. Anaggh Desai shares an interesting take on the benefits of FDI from a customer perspective”…..This article appeared as a Perspective in StoRai magazine Jan-Feb 2012.

A debate on this question has been going on for a long time; with government wishing to introduce the bill, it just gathered momentum recently.

The past couple of weeks, every platform/gathering somebody or other has asked me the question ‘Why should FDI be allowed in India?’ I do not object to the question on principle, it is quite amusing to note that everyone has a view about why it should be allowed/not allowed – mostly like East Bengal & Mohun Bagan match in Kolkatta. Read the rest of this entry »

This article first appeared in StoRai magazine page 44 and can be read here.

After joining twitter way back in 2009, there was always this major hashtag #FF (follow friday) every friday which used to cause disruption all around. I had blogged about it here and here.

In 2010 I had done a follow recommendation at the year end of all those who I followed. 2011 begun well enough, with my interacting with a lot of people but not following many of them. Some of them took it to heart, called me upon it etc, but I unfortunately just could not understand the logic. However I have always made it a point to try & respond to every reply that I receive.

Come December and a couple of people even asked me, whether I would do a yearly recco like the past year. Yes, it was on the top of my mind, but needed to do so for those who had made time for me, helped me without expectations - isn’t that what twitter and internet all about?

I tried to cover as many as my feeble memory could recall, however I am sure that many have been missed out, but hey keep interacting and there’s always the future. So here it goes, in no particular order……. (collation has been done thanks to Atul Karmarkar ) Read the rest of this entry »