Skip to main content

Featured Post

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport.  That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’t ju

Book Review: Boomtown by Aditya Mukherjee

Boomtown’ is the first novel of Aditya Mukherjee. Its cover, illustrated by Jezreel Nathan, is the perfect foil to the story – of an idea born in the bylanes of Old Delhi, taking its root from recipes zealously guarded and faithfully adhered to for years, and the journey which leads to its fruition in the towering high rises which make up Gurgaon.




Boomtown is basically the story of JJ, or Jacob James, coming from a rich, Malayali Christian family filled with eccentric uncles and cousins. A chance meeting with Jaaved, heir to his grandfather’s legendary cooking skills and restaurant, but filled with the desire to invent his own versions of ancient recipes, sees JJ set off to find the right people to set off on his venture with. He finds his old friends – Roy, a disgruntled laid off engineer, and Sheetal, a single mom working in the hotel industry, and thus begins the adventure, which takes the friends, and us, on an adventurous journey leading into the heart of the city, and encountering the people who make it what it is.

For a first novel, the story as well as the writing is remarkably good. The characters are mostly well sketched, and the situations and people are realistic. Descriptions of Old Delhi as well as Gurgaon fit in really well, as do the stories of cheating and threatening which seem to rule the real estate industry. Sheetal’s experiences with the sexist agents is something sure to strike a chord with most female readers, and even the fraudulent broker threatening to kill Jaaved one moment and crying on his father’s shoulder the next must bring a smile to most faces.

If I have any complaints, it is that the story is too predictable. Aditya Mukherjee, in his acknowledgements, writes that the story was written in his second year at IIM Bangalore, and that is what it is – a story written by a college goer, wondering about life as it is going to turn out. In an age where most boys turn to an engineering degree for either satisfying their parents or not knowing what else to do, the question of what one wants to do with one’s life is something that becomes evident only when one is in college, and thinking which job to take up. This is especially evident in the story, both in the case of JJ and Roy. JJ, searching for the right thing to do, and Roy, wondering which way to turn, now that he is out of a job, both trying to bring some meaning into their lives.


The book has enough twists and turns and interesting encounters to keep one hooked to the end, and it is certainly a good read. 

This book was sent to me for review by Rupa Publications


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw

The Havelis of Bikaner - A Photo Post

The lanes are narrow , twisting and turning amidst buildings old and new. Crumbling old structures with intricate workmanship stand side by side with art deco buildings, and more modern constructions, which follow no particular style. Autos, bicycles, motorcycles and vans rush past, blowing their horns as loudly as possible, while cows saunter past peacefully, completely unaffected by the noise. In the midst of all this chaos, children play by the side, and women go about their chores, as we explore these by-lanes of Bikaner, and its beautiful Havelis. Facade of one of the Rampuria Havelis

The Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan