In my phase of wanting to try out Indian authors writing fiction, I ordered a couple of books from flipkart, which provided a good deal on them. I have blogged some of the better known earlier, but did not have the energy to do so for all of them, so clubbed the rest of them.

1888 Dial India by Anuvab Pal - Part Rant, Part Satire is how it is described, however it looked as if a collection of Tweets that were Rants. One of the most useless book I have had the misfortune to read.

Accidentally in Love by Nikita Singh - A truely chic lit fiction, where the so called modern self earning woman falls in love and is undecided. Add a bit of sex in Indian Mills & Boon and there you are. Managed to read it in an hour flat.

I never thought I could fall in Love  by Chanchaldeep Singh Sandhu - Seems to be part autobiographical in nature written by Punjab da Puttar, something a lot of college students or millennials would identify with.

The Company Red by Shantanu Dhar - Soon to be a major motion picture says the mast head, humans, vampire, different fonts…..phew left it half way.

Another one from the Alumnus stable of IIM Ahmedabad, I do not know who, how, where, when this book landed on my table but in a moment of desperation decided to flip through it.

The book is an attempt to be a kind of Robin Sharma or Deepak Chopra to the professional beginners, but lacks the conviction that experience should, which probably may be true.

But, Hey I am not a beginner and hence may have not understood the book.

Another book by an Indian author, who was a banker, is good compere, loves scotch, cigars - Anish Trivedi.

A first attempt, which looks an attempt to climb the band wagon of becoming a novelist.

There is nothing new about the story except BPO theme and how middle class life is about and how they make choices.

It looks as if BPO is now the flavor of the month/season.

I prefer Anish as a columnist or compere.

I have been reading quite a number of Indian authors more from the perspective of trying to understand what audience are they trying to address; what makes them tick; would they be really consistent or it is more of a fad they are trying to ride.

This book is a kind of chicalit story, on the BPO industry obviously something the writer is working with and has undergone; probably as the main character the upheavals. However, the book could have been woven much tighter especially on the relationship front. It sort of just flits over the relationship vs client vs operations. But, overall it makes a nice “flight” reading.

I am sure it would be read by the BPO industry and the requisite 500-1000 copies would be sold. My other Indian author reviews (if you could call it that) can be found here, here and here.

A novel by Karan Bajaj who had earlier written Keep off the grass.

It is a decent attempt to refresh your memory of the great Chase novels, but falls flat most of the time, with time, geography taking a beating.

The hero is ‘IIT’ which makes him invincible enough to escape, run a retail empire carved from drugs, become a IT millionaire and keep giving it all up.

It ends up as a mish mash but at Rs. 100/- makes a decent airport timepass.

On a recent visit to Hyderabad, spending time at the airport, chanced upon Indian authors and picked up some books out of which two ‘The Young Turks’ & ‘Delhi Durbar’ by Krishna Pratap Singh; The Betelnut Killers by Manisha Lakhe; The Game Changers by Fake IPL player.

In terms of grading, the books are no literary marvels, however the ones by Krishna Pratap Singh were worth the money paid.

They are well written, the characters being brought alive & you can recognize the tongue in cheek references to the past & current crop of politicians as well as the incidences referred to. They lighten your mind and the author manages to entertain the masses.

The Betelnut Killers by Manisha Lakhe is a mish mash of American Born Confused Desi with decently etched characters which neither entertains, but you just suffer through the laborious story.

The Game Changer is just a rehash of last year’s blog, but shows how Perception is different from reality. Better books than this have sunk without a trace whilst this is supposed selling well.

It is good to see that there are numerous Indian writers coming up and writing over a plethora of topics. Now only if enough Indian readers read:)

A/5 Royal Classic, Next to Fame Adlabs, Link Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai

Mahesh - upmarket

Owned by Mahesh Lunch home, so most of the times fish is good. However the quality has gone down in recent times, service is lackadaisical, furnishing tacky with cigarette burns on the table cloth…..

But their crispy veg, paneer dishes are still good with the hot rotis.

With a bit of revamp, it should not need addl salt & pepper…..Are you listening Suraj

Bhavans College Main Gate, Dadabhai Road, Andheri (W), Mumbai

missing krishna

Had a chance to visit this, since had to meet up someone & parked the car near to this place. The friend said, let’s grab a snack, went in, found it renovated, maybe done a couple of years ago, but i had gone after 10-12 years.

Serves all indian - south, north, east, west with mexican & italian thrown in.

Good stuff, reasonable prices, great service

115, S. V. Road, Irla, Vile Parle (W), Mumbai

Kya Baat hai Harish Ki

An impromptu afternoon session on the 30th dec 2006 with 3 friends deciding to have some beers in anticipation of the year end & all that jazz….

Went up the stairs….surprise some 5 friends had also the same idea….with the orders flowing, mobiles were whipped out & in no time more dropped in….by 2 pm there were 18-20 of us(bit diff to remember) Beer, vodka, gin flowed along with the lovely free chakna, interspersed with fish items, sukha chicken & mutton.

Finally it was the cell phone ringing from home, that decided to close the session at around 8pm

Been there a couple of times after that, met some unique people but never had such a blast.

1st Floor, Mohid Heights, Lokhandwala Road, 4 Bungalows, Andheri (W), Mumbai

Ordered In

Have yet to visit the place, but ordered in a couple of weeks back. The butter chicken, aloo masala were great with very little oil as instructed. And the roti’s just right.

Wonder what awaits us on our visit there.