English August- A book review

English August written by Upmanyu Chatterjee, another English book by a Bengali Author. It very much lived up to the standards I have come to expect of Bengali writers.
This book gives a scoop into how villages work, how the so called government servants, IAS officers run the rural areas. Perfect for city bred,English speaking youth who have no clue of what and how of a village.
Agasthya Sen aka English August is our window into this world of bureaucracy. I cannot simply say this book is humorous which it is but because laughter comes in from unexpected quarters and sometimes it is so sudden that I was laughing out loud not just at the situation but also an the ingenuity of the author. This book is a class of its own. The author uses words plucked from remote parts of the dictionary yet the result is beautiful prose not just a jumble of words. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the famed "Eat Pray Love" extols the beauty of Italian language. Upon reading English August, even English seems to have a whole new dimension.
I look forward to re-reading this book in future, perhaps when life demands some spontaneity and mirth.

The Case of Dissappearing Balconies in Mumbai

Image courtesy:tripadvisor.com

Balcony is a small portion in your apartment home open to the outside world.Balcony without question had been a integral part of apartments in any high rise building in Mumbai.
It started as a small trend some 15 years ago to "take-in" this balcony to add to the living room space, a sign of the upper middle class who owned the apartments and could afford the remodelling costs.
Unfortunately what started as a novel idea has now become a norm in any new construction. Builders reason that if a balcony is constructed anyway it would be taken-in in a few years so let us do it for you. There is a catch though, the room size has actually stayed the same, only now there is no balcony to take-in!
Balcony was a place to bask in the sun after a long head bath, say hi to the neighbour across the street. It also provided a secretive place to talk to your boyfriend, sometimes take a little walk; as oasis when life became stressful.
An ever burgeoning Mumbai population combined with a sharp increase in real estate prices is taking away this little comfort zone from us.