Em and The Big Hoom – Jerry Pinto
In a one-bedroom-hall-kitchen in Mahim, Bombay, through the last decades of the twentieth century, lived four love-battered Mendeses: mother, father, son and daughter.
Between Em, the mother, driven frequently to hospital after her failed suicide attempts, and The Big Hoom, the father, trying to hold things together as best he could, they tried to be a family.
Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes – Betsy Woodman
Janet Laird’s life changed the day she inherited her grandfather’s house in a faraway Indian hill station. Ignoring her son’s arguments to come grow old in their family castle in Scotland, she moves with her chatty parrot, Mr. Ganguly and her loyal housekeeper, Mary, to Hamara Nagar, where local merchants are philosophers, the chief of police is a tyrant, and a bagpipe-playing Gurkha keeps the wild monkeys at bay.
Settling in, Jana Bibi (as she comes to be known) meets her colorful local neighbors—Feroze Ali Khan of Royal Tailors, who struggles with his business and family, V.K. Ramachandran, whose Treasure Emporium is bursting at the seams with objects of unknown provenance, and Rambir, editor of the local newspaper, who burns the midnight oil at his printing press.
When word gets out that the town is in danger of being drowned by a government dam, Jana is enlisted to help put it on the map. Hoping to attract tourists with promises of good things to come, she stacks her deck of cards, readies her fine-feathered assistant—and Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes is born
Battle For Bittora – Anuja Chauhan
Twenty-five-year-old Jinni lives in Mumbai, works in a hip animation studio and is perfectly happy with her carefree and independent existence. Until her bossy grandmother shows up and announces that it is Jinni’s ‘duty’ to drop everything and come and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from their sleepy hometown, Bittora.Of course, Jinni swears she won’t. But she soon ends up swathed in cotton saris and frumpy blouses, battling prickly heat, corruption and accusations of nymphomania as candidate Sarojini Pande, a daughter of the illustrious Pande dynasty of Pavit Pradesh. And if life isn’t fun enough already, her main opposition turns out to be Bittora ex-royal, Zain Altaf Khan – an irritatingly idealistic though an undeniably lust-worthy individual with whom Jinni shares a complicated history…
Recently, one of my favourite websites/apps has been Quora. I keep reading stories there and one of these threads was a nice one where people wrote about what was the most non-Indian things about them. So I thought of posting something similar here, instead of in Quora.
Race/Caste: I am completely race, caste, colour and religion blind. I believe in everyone living the life they want to live.
Food: I love foods from other cultures and try to eat different foods as much as possible. I also don’t eat the food traditionally cooked by my community all the time, I need to eat different food all the time.
Speech: I am more comfortable in English than in Indian languages. In fact, I usually speak to Indians here in English and only when I am super comfortable with them, do I start using Indian languages
Punctuality: I am very punctual everywhere. If I have to be someplace at a certain time, I am usually there 10-15 minutes before the scheduled time. If in exceptional circumstances, I become late, I always call or text the person I am meeting to let them know as much in advance as possible.
Etiquette: I always thank people for whatever they do for me. This includes my parents, husband, children and in fact anyone I come across during the day.
Clothes and Jewellery: I don’t buy Indian clothes each time I go to India or even when there’s an occasion. I don’t believe in spending thousands of rupees on clothes you would wear only a couple of times; I’d rather spend money on something I would wear again and again, even if it’s slightly more expensive. It’s the same with jewellery. I don’t like wearing jewellery and don’t even wear the traditional symbols of marriage that women in my community wear.
Cricket: Zero interest in cricket or any sport for that matter. I can’t remember the last time I actually saw a match and since here you need to pay through your nose for cable television, I don’t really see the need to spend that kind of money to watch a match!
There’s probably more, but this is all I can think of right now. I may update this post when I think of more things. In the meantime, do check out Quora’s thread (the link is in the beginning of the post)
Wise And Otherwise – Sudha Murty
A man dumps his aged father in an old-age home after declaring him to be a homeless stranger, a tribal chief in the Sahyadri hills teaches the author that there is humility in receiving too, and a sick woman remembers to thank her benefactor even from her deathbed. These are just some of the poignant and eye-opening stories about people from all over the country that Sudha Murty recounts in this book. From incredible examples of generosity to the meanest acts one can expect from men and women, she records everything with wry humour and a directness that touches the heart.
Memories and Such 