Last Kiss Goodnight...

I don't really remember when I started my good night ritual. Perhaps it was on my permanent return home from college that started it, or perhaps I did it in my younger years and just don't quite remember. Right before I head off into my room at night, I'd lean over to each parent and make them kiss me good night. "Enforced chummi" (kiss) my late Father used to call it. "What if I don't feel like kissing you tonight?"he'd ask. "Tough,"I'd say and as I always did with him, would get my way. Sometimes my cheek was met with affection, sometimes with a quick kiss and moved aside if my head blocked a particularly interesting movie or TV show on the telly, and sometimes my cheek was just left unkissed and ignored. This was/is usually done by my Mother and is the ultimate show of anger. "I'm too angry with you to kiss you good night," that signals. "I'm too pissed off with you right now and know how much this will bother you but I really want to signal my anger across anyway," is what it really means. And on the really, really rare occasion, I won't lean in and motion for a kiss at all. "I don't care if you kiss me good night," is what it signals. "You know how much this action means to me and yet I won't even ask for it, so you can only imagine how upset with you I am," it says. Yes, a tiny little gesture can communicate so very much.
"What if I don't wake up tomorrow?"was given by way of explanation, "Or what if you don't," I'd tell my Mother at the rare instance she'd refuse to partake in my nightly ritual. "Do you really want either one of us to not remember our last interaction with each other?"My mother would then roll her eyes at what she viewed as the over dramatization of crazy thoughts that ran through my mind. The last kiss goodnight to me meant that no matter how bad we fought that day, we'd by a small action proverbially raise a white flag and make peace- at least for the night. It meant that no matter what, I was loved. It meant that no matter how badly I may have, or you think I may have behaved, I'm sorry. Mind you I have no qualms slamming a door shut having had a fight, or going off for a drive in a huff or parting a variety of fights in a variety of different circumstances at various times of the day without worrying about parting words. Yet there was always this thought that consumed me- If either one doesn't survive this night, we'd always have parted having shown we loved each other, and most importantly, having made peace.
Then one day in April in 2002, I woke up to the day I'd never see my Father alive again. My father was supposed to be sent out of the ICU that day in fact, but early that morning decided to instead leave us forever. I don't remember the night before clearly, but I remember it being late at night and me asking my Mother if it was too late for me to sneak into the ICU and see my dad. She had probably said to try anyway, and I remember distinctly walking towards his room. My last conversation with him is completely lost in my memory (which is strange as I remember his last words to me that afternoon as if it was yesterday- "The show must go on") as is any interaction with him that evening. I only remember that he was sleeping and I woke him up only to, you guessed it, have him give me one last kiss goodnight.

Over the years I've had spats with friends and loved ones and while it completely makes sense that sometimes their normal reaction is to "want space"or to "give it some time" or "take a break" my request is always to sort the issue out then and there. To hell with going to sleep sad, mad or upset I say... stay up and fight!! I recently had a conversation with a friend who explained they thought it was better to not fight and say hurtful things in the moment that couldn't be taken back, but rather let both people involved cool down and then come to the table. "What? So you'd rather leave things unsaid and let people stay upset in the time being?" I asked, clearly horrified. "Just smooth things out then and there," I say having visions of me not being able to sleep at night.  At least whichever way things go you'll end the day knowing where you stand is my thought process. I hate going to sleep with a weight on my chest, and I think the more the person matters, the more it matters to me to "make things ok." Making things ok doesn't mean giving in, it means coming to a solution sooner rather than later as I hate letting hurt or angry feelings linger. Each time a friend, lover or parent has walked out on an argument I've always felt... well... abandoned for lack of a better word. I think most of us would like to "go" peacefully in our sleep if we could, so why not end the day having made peace with all around us? Even if making peace means letting go.
Weird, perhaps. But that's just me, and you know what? For the most part, it allows me to sleep like a baby.


L

Hotel Review- Mandarin Oriental Paris

Image taken from Mandarin Oriental website

My friend Nadia and I were heading to Paris for a few days and after doing much research, decided to book a stay at the Mandarin Oriental. Two years ago I'd head to Paris at the same time and had then stayed at the Hotel Crillon where I usually stay and love. Last year when I headed to Paris for the Paris Fashion Week I decided to stay at the Ritz as that's where my sister was staying and I figured it was more convenient for us both to be at the same hotel. Unfortunately both the hotels were shut for renovation and as Nadia hadn't been to Paris before, I was left to pick the hotel. The Mandarin Oriental had the largest rooms and was conveniently located, and despite me having walked into the lobby of the hotel during my last visit and not thinking much of it, I figured it's a Mandarin Oriental.. How bad can it get??

We arrived late into Paris and by the time we reached the hotel Nadia and I were pretty tired and ready to get a good nights rest. I'd warned her about the garish lobby already (the above pic is from their website and as website pictures go, not exactly an accurate representation of what it looks like) and she understood what I'd meant when she walked in. There is no sign of Parisian understated elegance and instead was a hotel that as I put it the first time around, looked like a hotel in Abu Dhabi- and not in a good way. Anyhow we headed up to our room and were a little taken aback by what we were greeted there. The twin beds we requested weren't there and instead we were given a double bed with an extra bed thrown in- that was the first surprise. The second surprise was the decor of the room itself and the quality of furniture and fittings. The room now looked to us like a 3 or 4 star hotel in Abu Dhabi. To add fuel to the fire we realized our bed, the main one not the extra bed we'd been given, had a broken spring of some sort. Needless to say we called and complained. We asked for plugs to charge our phones- the plugs didn't work. We called and complained. They had very sweetly left out a bottle of champagne and a cake for my birthday before we got there. Only problem? The cake had attracted many, many mosquitoes. Needless to say, we called and complained. The Manager that evening went out of her way to make our stay better and tried giving us like a triple upgrade to a duplex suite to make it up to us. While in the room checking it out though, I noticed that the handle on a cupboard door had fallen out and Nadia and I couldn't stop laughing at what seemed to be a year old hotel falling apart. Needless to say we didn't stay in the room and asked for another one. Really, when you're paying a 1000 Euros a night, you expect for your room to be immaculate, your hotel perfect and things to function flawlessly. The room we finally got was apparently worth 1800 Euros a night, offered to us at the same rate and Nadia and I both thought that it just made sense for us to stay put. That's when we realized after a sweaty night that the AC didn't function properly and the breakfast was bad (who has even heard of bad croissants in France?!) and when Nadia saw a door that seemed to be held together by scotch tape (no joke) we decided that even our quadruple upgrade couldn't make us stay put. We ate breakfast, went over to the George V and practically begged them to find us a room.

So here's the deal with the Mandarin Oriental in Paris- the service, despite what I just wrote, is amazing. They tried their best to accommodate us and it reached a stage where we were almost apologetic to leave. I'd forgotten to inform the Emirates Limo my change of address when it came time to take us back to the airport- When he announced himself at the Mandarin they actually told him to head over the George V and that I'd moved a few days earlier. The Manager who took care of us the night we arrived really was amazing, so much so that I left her the bottle of champagne they'd kept for me. After we left I had the Manager of the Hotel email me and profusely apologize and offer me a free night at the hotel the next time I come into Paris. Nadia and I both realized in a day or 2 that as good as the George V was, the service didn't quite match up to the Mandarin Oriental's.

Would I go back and stay there? No. Great service is one thing, but the hotel decor was just way too tacky for my taste. It was done, we were told, in the style matching the 1930's which I found hilarious as I think it to be the most boring and uneventful decade style-wise in the 20th century, but what do I know? Maybe others would love the hotel but personally I wouldn't want to stay there again.

While perfectly acceptable, I didn't think much of the room decor.. especially for the price

Thought the velvet mural on the wall in the room was scary and tacky

The corridors were in 1930's style. Again, not befitting of a Mandarin Oriental!

The wallpaper!!!!

My thoughts on the India's rape problem-

Image taken from Slate.com

 On a blog that mostly deals with gadgets, fashion or other frivolity I'm going to try sticking my neck out and write about something that's been playing on my mind over the last few days- my thoughts on the rapes taking place in India.
I sent a message to a friend a few days ago after watching the news of the 5 year old girl brutally raped in Delhi and asked her who in their right mind would want to bring a child into this world when humanity has reached levels of such depravity. Reading the statistics of related cases in India brought a chill to my spine- rate complaints increased 25% between 2006 and 2011 and it's really impossible to know whether even these statistics are accurate as I'm sure most of the cases still go unreported. Having lived in India for only 6 years between the ages of 10 to 16 it is still mind boggling for me to think back to the number of incidents I remember being told of of what I now know to be sexual harassment and assault. It was common for young girls to be propositioned by elderly "uncles" in the elevator, to have a leery watchman or driver in the building,  or in some particularly sad cases, be molested by brothers or fathers of friends, or more often than not, by their own relatives. It was something we spoke of amongst each other when we were younger but it is horrifying for me to think that while we knew something was wrong, at no point did any of us think to approach anyone older to talk about it. While I was very fortunate to not be at the receiving end of anything more grave than what I deem sadly to be "regular" harassment for India standards, it still took me 6 years after that of being away to boarding school and college to realize the change of attitude, to sense something was different. Don't get me wrong- rape and anything associated with it was always a threat even in the US. What was different however was that any form of sexual predatorship was looked upon as the abnormality, not the norm. The men had not been sexually repressed so male-female interactions on a day to day basis were more relaxed and less guarded. Female students (as were male ones in fact) were encouraged to, after dark, use a service on campus where you had someone walk you back to your dorm or mode of transport. And more importantly, the conversation between the students and the faculty was more open and educative- if you're alone in a parking lot make sure you have your key out to use as a weapon if someone attacks you! Only get into marked taxis and ones that you've phoned for! Always call a friend from a cab and give them the license plate of the one you're in!  I was prepared for the world out there and had a safe environment in which to communicate if something was even slightly off.
A few years ago, after returning from University and living in Dubai, I was uncomfortable at the behavior of my Gardner at home and his what I deemed to be leery ways. I conveyed the same to my Mother and requested her to let go of him. Even then I wondered if I was overreacting as he'd merely just stop his work every time I'd walk by and stare at me.. Or would find any excuse to come talk to me or generally give me very uncomfortable vibes. But then I thought to myself, a walk to my car every morning shouldn't make me be wary of my surroundings, or in fact, downright uncomfortable and figured women's intuition is the best radar I've been blessed with so it's better to be safe than sorry. Luckily for me my Mother respected my wishes despite thinking them ridiculous,  had him replaced. Strangely enough a close friend now is being harassed by her gardener who is stalking her and is convinced he loves her and she him and that they are meant to be married. She's had to change her phone number because of him and can't be alone in or around her house at any time and the gardener himself has gone in and out of jail a few times because of this. We joke and tease her about it but really, it is no laughing matter.
My advice to all parents out there- TALK TO YOUR KIDS. If they (your male and female offspring) are in the least bit bothered or uncomfortable by the presence of anyone NO MATTER HOW INCONVENIENT IT IS TO YOU, do something about it! Let them know it's not ok for ANYONE including the staff at home, older kids on the school bus or even friends or relatives to violate their personal space! And most importantly- APPLY THE SAME RULES TO YOURSELF! I've heard of many cases where well educated female friends even till date do not speak out about harassment they face for fear of embarrassment, shame or just not wanting to draw unwanted attention to themselves.

This brings me to the second point of my post. I've been watching the news and salute the women who are leaving their homes, taking to the streets, braving the wrath of cops and protesting about the state of women in India- Delhi in particular. Yet, it would be over simplifying the problem if we merely point to mens' appendages and pronounce them to be weapons of mass destruction and look upon each male as a threat. The problem sadly, also stems from parenting of said Indian male, of whom sadly, the one primarily responsible is the mother- yes, a woman. Even in well educated Indian homes the mother dotes on her son as being her Raja beta who can do no wrong. In more affluent of Indian homes the parents may allow their daughter a bit more freedom and may agree to send her away from home to boarding school or college, but their expectations of what the girl will do with the degree is very skewed. I know Indian women who have gone to schools like Harvard and UPenn but whose parents still look upon their "settling down" (ie: getting married) as the most important "accomplishment" of their daughter. I can narrate stories of female friends' mothers who have encouraged them to dress more provocatively or given them tips on how they should have their one particular (usually wealthy and from the same community) male friend look at them as "more than a friend." In fact, I cannot think of a single female friend who after college did not receive pressure from their parents, usually their mother, to get married. I don't know of too many male friends who faced the same problem.
I remember back to the days in college when my girl friends would complain about not being allowed to go out late at night while their brothers were able to come home whenever they wanted. Mind you, it was not a question of safety- it was just a question of different standards being applied to the raising of the different sexes. Is it surprising that a nation that has a ban on sex determination during pregnancy has a rape problem?? Forget about female infanticide, I do not know of any Indian marriages, including those of close friends, where some sort of "dowry" did not exchange hands. Whether it's a Patek watch for the boy, or Sabyasachi saris for the to-be Mother in Law and other female relatives, a "give and take" is natural, normal and what's "done." I live in Dubai and have heard of many a story of what husbands of society darlings' get up to after hours. The question has always remained- do the wives know? For most, I don't have the answer, but for some I do and I wonder what their motivation to stay in the marriage is. The kids? The money? I know of one recently divorced Indian woman in Dubai who decided to throw a party one evening. Yes, evening and not afternoon, and yes her "friends" and their husbands were invited. I don't know the woman in question personally, but she was the talk of the town (or a at least parts of town, namely Emirates Hills) merely because she dared to invite men. "She got divorced, now she must be after our husbands," was the general thought process going around, and when I commented on how ridiculous that idea was, I got a, "but you don't know what she's like!" Hopefully, if you're reading this and are of rational thought, you will see the problem with this argument.
Maybe because I was raised in an all women household for the most part (I do not have a brother and my Father was traveling the world through most of my childhood) I do not face a lot of gender differentiation staring me in the face daily on the home front. I joined my family business immediately after college and that probably explains why I didn't face any discrimination for being a female at work either. Also being financially independent also puts me in a very fortunate position of not having to rely on a husband to provide for me or "take care" of me in the future. I realize all of this. I also realize that I'm very blessed to be the 3rd child (hence the most liberally raised) to a Mother who stressed on the importance of education and a work ethic over finding a husband, and a Father who was convinced I was meant to be a boy and looked upon me as the son he never had. I grew up a tomboy sharing my Father's watches and oftentimes, much to his joy and amusement, his clothes and was never made to feel I couldn't do anything because I was a girl, unless of course it was my direct safety they were concerned about- like coming home alone late at night. In fact when my Father passed away in 2002 I insisted on performing the final rites (an act reserved for a boy) which I was allowed to also ironically because I wasn't married. Not that I'm saying my upbringing was perfect- I'm merely stating though that because of multiple factors in my life I'm possibly more affected and able to see the absurdity in the way most Indian households handle the dynamics between their men and women. Or maybe I am maybe more affected by it than I realize as my parents had me after a 6 year gap after my second sister (and 8 years after the eldest) as they probably hoped for a son.. in fact they'd picked out a name for him- Kiran. My Father was away in fact at a temple in India while my Mother gave birth to me and when he returned to Bombay he was greeted by his brother who gave him the news of my birth and then said to him, "bad news... it's another girl." Maybe subconsciously I feel so strongly against gender discrimination as although I can't remember facing it outright, my very existence seems to be defined by it.
I don't mean to offend anyone by this article.. quite the opposite. I am not a bra-burning feminist- if you know me, you'll know I'm quite the opposite and am a hopeless romantic if there ever was one! I however do hope you pause for a few moments after reading this, especially if you're a woman, especially if I know you personally, and think about the issue we as a culture are facing. I don't think India merely has a rape problem, but it has a serious gender problem that has permeated our being at all different levels of society, however well educated or however affluent. It is sad to see it happen, but it is sadder yet to see people mindlessly put up posts on Facebook about the shock and horror they feel hearing about the rapes taking place in India. While they may not have a solution, and I'm not even saying there is one!.. I just wish they'd pause for a moment and think that maybe, just maybe, they may be a teeny tiny part of the problem.
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Gift or not to gift? That is the question...

At dinner with 3 close friends the other day, I said to them I knew exactly what I wanted for my birthday. "What?" they asked. "Nothing!" I said. My nothing does not stem from a, "I'm so blessed I need nothing in my life," sort of nothing. One of the worst excuses particularly stingy friends throw at me for historically showing up empty handed is, "I didn't know what to get you.. What do you buy the girl who has everything?" I don't have everything. I really don't. I'm actually quite an easy person to shop for considering I love to shop. I love gadgets- heck, I love gadgets so much I actually spend time writing about them. Forget about the fact that that's my business- that happened by coincidence by my Father before I was born, but the experimenting with new phones and iPods and headsets and all the rest of it? Is all me. Can't think of what gadget to get me considering I probably have everything I'd want being sold in my stores? My friends would know of my sick obsession with make up. Buy me a simple set of eye shadows- anything from Rimmel being sold in the supermarket to Tom Ford will do, and you'll have me giddy like a girl with vertigo on the top of the Burj Khalifa. Absolutely LOVE the stuff. Don't have the budget but want to get me something I'll really treasure? Anyone who has seen my eyes light outside a bookstore (or for that matter has tried borrowing a book from me) will know how much pride I take in my collection and how much they mean to me. I call the Kinokuniya store in Dubai Mall "my happy place" if that tells you anything! Books are always a safe bet!
But back to my conversation with my 3 slightly confused friends at my birthday gift request. "I'll explain," I added, "I not only don't want anything, I want to be exempt from getting you anything too. You and your families," I quickly added. Let me explain. As a single girl about to turn 35, chances are most of my friends are married, which they are or are about to be. Some of my older friends have college going kids too, but it's the ones that  who have, in recent past, and continue to procreate are the ones where my problem lies. Buying my friends birthday gifts I can handle. I have found a simple scarf from Hermes with a gift receipt in case they don't like my taste, garners a positive response from most women. Do I find it painful to have to dash to the mall at the nth hour before going for a friends birthday dinner as I would have inevitably left buying said scarf it to the last minute? Yes, I do. But nothing I can't handle. What I don't want to put up with anymore is buying the husband's birthday gifts, and worse yet, the kids. And for God's sake please let me be in oblivion about when your anniversary is, and do NOT have a dinner or party to celebrate it.
Mind you, I'm not cheap and it's not the monetary aspect I have a problem with. Most of the times I adore my friends husband's and possibly have an independent friendship with them and I'm very fortunate to have friends who are married to great guys. But would I have stressed about buying them something had I really been independently friends with them and they not been the spouse of my girl friend? Probably not. No offense my lovelies if any of you are reading this, but as a single girl I really don't want to have to pick out ties for your hubby... I don't have a brother and never bought ties for my Father and with the exception of my closest male friend who has a standard tie request for his birthday, I don't want to go tie shopping at all. Ever.
Recently, while heading for a friends kids birthday party who decided to celebrate all 3 kids birthday in one shot, I messaged another friend while hurrying out the door what I should bring. "Lego," she responded, adding the ages of the kids and indicating a price range so I wouldn't blatantly embarrass myself showing up with something too cheap, that was possibly for teenage girls (my friend has 3 boys.) To my delight I discovered that my local WH Smith sold Lego and I made a mental note for future birthday parties I may attend. What was I doing at a kids birthday party in the first place, you ask? My friend had given me an optional invite, and my other friends convinced to come late so we could hang out once the party was winding down- and we did and it was fun and I'm glad I went. And really nothing in the world can beat kiddie birthday party food. I don't know why we stopped serving chicken nuggets and mini pizzas at our birthdays... but I digress. Later I thought to myself, I have no kids.. do I really WANT to know where Lego is available? Should I opt out of going to birthday parties so I don't shamefacedly turn up empty handed? My mother would argue I have questionable social etiquette anyway and her constant complaint is that I don't go anywhere ( I opt out of most large social bashes) so should I really be making myself that much of a weirdo in social situations with close friends too?
My friends sat round the table in silence and stared at me like I had 2 heads, partly I think offended that I felt like buying gifts for their dear ones was an obligation in the first place and that I shouldn't have bothered, etc. But it's what's "done" and I did for the most part except for places I did show up empty handed (like I said, questionable social etiquette did pop up every now and then). But for all of ONE time in the year you may feel obligated to go buy me something, please understand there are possibly multiple reasons in the year I may have to go out shopping for you, and REALLY... who likes to go shopping for birthday gifts for others anyway?? Nobody! "So again," I repeated, "don't get me anything and I won't get you.. or your families.. anything either."
Am I ridiculous for not wanting to feel pressured multiple times a year to halfheartedly go pick out things for people's special occasions? Wouldn't my friends just rather I go pick out something nice for them randomly in the middle of the year if I think they'd like it?- and I do! And if I'm invited to a not-so-close friend's home for the first time or an acquaintance's something-or-the-ther, I'll happily grab a bottle of wine or champagne to take along with me so I at least have the basic common courtesies down pat. But is it really that horrible to tell a few close friends I want out of this whole gift exchanging business? The way I see it, it's not something I'm trying to enforce a week after my birthday... I'm starting at a fair platform and requesting to not be bought anything either! Is it really that bizarre?! 
"Say something," I prompted as they ate their food in silence. "Listen," said the one I'm closest to who incidentally will be the one I'm spending my birthday with in Paris. "We think you're being ridiculous and the best you'll get is for us to respect your wishes... so just be happy with that." And you know what? I am.
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Book Review- One Hundred Years of Solitude

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." This is the start of the widely acclaimed book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It should have perhaps been an indication to me then what the rest of the book would be like, as many many chapters go by before we are again even introduced to Cololenel Auerliano Buenido, or to the specific incident of him discovering ice. But in typical Marquez style, I too shall digress.
If you have been following my book reviews for a while now, maybe you're slightly bored by my rave reviews and "must read" recommendations. But when we're doing classics and highly recommended ones that too, it's sort of hard to come across a book that we really didn't like right? My friend and I had both heard a lot about One Hundred Years.. and another friend had even gifted me my still unread copy of Love in the Time of Cholera (also by Marquez) promising me it would be one of the best I'd ever read and so I figured this be a sure shot must-read.
It started off as you can possibly see above, on an intriguing, if not gripping, note. The story proceeds to take you into the life of the village of Maconda and the lives of the Buenido family. The description is colourful and vivid and with the promise of stories with gypsies and secrets it starts of as a page turner. Then there is the sudden introduction of a ghost (and a lot of major events in the book happen in a sudden manner in the middle of a mundane sentence) and then somebody is born with the tale of a pig, and events and characters become even more fantastical and frankly, ridiculous, that you're unsure of whether you're supposed to read into things, find a metaphorical aspect to them or take them at face value for what they are- bizarre occurrences.  At the start of the book you see a family tree drawn out for you on one page, and unless you glance through the names, you'll be unsure of why one is needed in the first place. All the names of the characters are pretty much the same, and with the amount of Arcadio's and Aureliano's in the book, your head starts to spin and you wonder whether you care what happens to them at all. The book has plenty of sex, incest, hatred, jealousy.. all the makings of a bad movie, up to and including ZERO plot.
I like books that have a story line which is why I prefer fiction to non fiction. I also like books that grip you and make you unable to put it down. And my favourite type of books are the ones that have characters you can relate to and that when over, make you feel like a part of your world has gone with it forever. I realize that a great plot isn't always what makes a book a classic , and in fact most classics are hardly ever page turners. I however found the dark humour too dark and thought characters were born and died before you could even begin to care for them. I though the book tied up nicely at the end but I don't know if I feel that way because I was so happy it was finally over! Seriously with about 50 pages left I messaged my friend and told her it was taking everything I had to even finish it!!
I know a lot of people think that it's an amazing book and its reviews on Amazon are almost overwhelmingly positive, so do go ahead and give it a shot. I knew while reading it my book club companion Piyali would love it, as she overwhelmingly prefers mostly non-fiction and I knew she'd quite enjoy the dark humour in the book. It certainly was not for me but I didn't want to omit doing a review on it because I didn't like it, neither did I not want to be honest about what I thought because its a classic and all that jazz. But yes, One Hundred Years.. Possibly one of the most painful books I've read!
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Book Review- Boomerang

If you've been following my blog for the past 2 months, you'll know that my friend Piyali and I have been doing a sort of "book club" of sorts where the both of us get together and read a book a week. Piyali's husband, Brij Singh, is extremely well known in the finance field in the UAE having been CEO and MD of Julius Baer Middle East, only to leave to leave to be founder and CEO of Baer Capital Partners ltd... and in fact is also the author of the next book on our reading list. On my flight back from my Harvard course last year I'd bumped into Brij as he was returning from the same program (albeit in the week after me) and we had talked pretty much non stop about various subjects, especially my inability to understand anything finance related. We'd discussed a lot of books too when we realized we both loved reading, and he had advised me to read Boomerang by Michael Lewis, which he had said was one of his most favourite books, by one of his most favourite authors. He promised it would, in very simple uncomplicated English with no finance jargon, explain to me the global financial crisis that we were experiencing and the why and how of it all. He'd praised the book so much that I'd gone out and bought it a few days later with full intent of reading it immediately.
As I'd dug into the book my brain had started to spin and my eyes got a bit fuzzy as they're wont to do when faced with numbers or finance related big-wordery. Credit swaps whaaa?? Hmm ok, I thought to myself, clearly Brij must have misunderstood when I said NO CLUE ABOUT FINANCE and I put the book away only to collect dust in a corner of my shelf. Recently one evening I was out to dinner with the couple and we were discussing what books we should do next when advised us to go through Boomerang, again promising a great and very educational read. We agreed but when we finally got to the time we were supposed to start on the book, I took ill and refused to touch it. It was only when Piyali finished the entire book and promised it was very easy to grasp once to get past the first few pages, is when I actually decided to get into it. "Read the first three chapters and if you don't like it you can quit then," she advised. What she never told me was that the book was only 5 chapters, but by the time the first 3 were done I was hooked and that was that.
Yes you could watch CNBC or read some complicated book or the Economist to try to understand about the global crisis, or really you could read Boomerang to not only give you a very accurate and detailed view about what went wrong, but also make you laugh out loud every few pages while doing so. Lewis takes a chapter each to talk about the meltdowns that took place in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and then the current state of the US. To give you a summation of what went wrong? "Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish." What on earth does that mean? Read Boomerang and find out.  The book is uncomplicated, very well researched, and gives you a sense of the people and culture in each of these countries, and then a detailed idea as to what went wrong and where it stands now. Being a very famous author I guess also has its perks and Lewis was about to in his travels to these places, meet the people who matter to get a real behind the scenes look into the disaster zones- in fact the part where he interviews Schwarzenegger while biking around LA was in equal parts insightful and hilarious.
Piyali too was also so impressed with not only the material of the book but also his style of writing, that she googled some of his interviews and had posted this on her Facebook wall. This is him speaking at Princeton (his alma mater) in 2012 and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well spoken he was. Again, his sense of humor shines through brilliantly even here-

Incidentally, when reading other reviews on Amazon I realized that Boomerang is actually a collection of essays Lewis had written for the magazine Vanity Fair. You may be hence actually able to find the chapters on the Vanity Fair website although I haven't tried doing that myself as I already had the book. Could I suggest that you read the first 3 chapters and see whether you like it? I think you'll be surprised at how much you enjoy it. I know I was!
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Book Review- Indian Summer

"In the beginning there were two nations. One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organized and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swath of the earth. The other was an undeveloped semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its illiterate, diseased and stinking masses. The first nation was India. The second was England."

Hooked yet? Those are the opening lines of the book, Indian Summer, and the lines my friend Piyali (and my book club partner) read out to me to entice me into reading it. If you've read my review of Rebecca you'll have realized my friend clearly pays a lot of attention to opening lines of books and considering both have been remarkable reads, maybe I should in the future as well. But I digress...

Yes, Indian Summer is indeed a remarkable book about the partition of India and the people who made it happen. If it's history you're looking for, you've got it here with a thoroughly researched book that has almost every third line citing it's origin. Indian Summer is so much more than just a historic tale being dispassionately put down on paper. The authour, Alex Von Tunzelman's writing absolutely delights and flows from one page to another. I recently tweeted a line from the book that made me laugh out loud where Tunzelman wrote about an Indian Prince- "It was unfortunate for 'half mad' underestimated his insanity by around 50 percent." Her part about Edwina Mountbatten's death also made me cry. For an authour to so brilliantly inject her voice into a non-fiction piece really shows off her prowess and brilliance as a writer, and she coins her phrases with equal parts ease and intrigue- enough for it to become a page turner.

While those interested in history may be interested in this book, those who are Indian must definitely pick this up- it's a must read! As an Indian I knew of partition from whatever little I'd learned in history lessons at school, knew of Gandhi from what I saw in the movie and knew to dislike Pakistanis when an India-Pakistan cricket match rolled around, despite knowing little about the game. Reading this book, especially reading about Gandhi, was an eye opener especially on some of his views and ideologies. Did you know Gandhi a) didn't think a woman should resist rape, but instead "defeat" their assailant while being passive and silent? b) thought the Jews should have committed some sort of mass suicide rather than be killed at the hands of the Germans? c) had naked girls, many under the age of 18, sleep in bed next to him so as to "test" his vow of celibacy? Yup.. all cited with proof and backed with research that I went off and did a bit of digging into myself. Just as with Maus when I read about the death and destruction caused by Hitler and naively wondered how one man could have changed the world, I was struck again by how the fates of India and Pakistan were governed mostly by 3 men- Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah. Did Mountbatten favour Nehru simply because the two got along better and shared a common interest? And did Jinnah really even WANT a separate Pakistan or did that idea just sprout as a bargaining tool with the British? Tunzelman answers all of these questions, and many more that you never even thought to question in the first place.

And in the midst of the madness comes about a most beautiful love story- that of Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru. I've seen done a bit of digging on that front and the jury is still out on whether their relationship was was a physical one or one that was purely platonic. Tunzelman handles this by leaving it  up to the reader's imagination, never clarifying one way or the other, but citing letters where it is described as an almost spiritual bond. She also cites letters between Edwina and her husband, as well as Lord Mountbatten and Nehru which suggest that he not only knew about a relationship of some sort, but also gave it his blessing.

All in all Indian Summer is an eye opener, highly educational and absolutely fantastic read and one that I can't stop raving about. Highly, highly recommended!!
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