Mistress – James Patterson

What would you do if one of your friends asked you to install surveillance equipment in his or her home and jumped out the window afterwards? Benjamin Casper, an editor of an online newspaper, is confronted with this problem when his friend Diana Hotchkiss does precisely that. While he is trying to figure out why Diana would kill herself, he realizes that he might have got mixed up in something sinister. A cop gives him ticket for erratic driving as he is fleeing from Diana’s apartment thus establishing the fact that he was in the vicinity at the time of the murder. The surveillance equipment that he had installed in her apartment vanishes in thin air. And as if all this isn’t enough, Ben finds that someone is desperately trying to kill him. The problem is – he doesn’t have a clue as to why.

You should never read any James Patterson novel at bedtime – because you will keep reading it way beyond your nap time. Suffice it to say that this one is no exception to that rule. :)

A confession is in order though. Since I rejoined the library – after a long gap of about 8 months, if I may add – I have been meaning to read ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. Even when I went to the library to return ‘Mistress’, I had intended to check out ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. But then I saw a Mary Higgins Clark novel and got it instead.

Next time, it is going to be ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.

And now about the annoying, maddening ads of Pepperfry.com. I am not sure which of the two ads drives my blood pressure higher. I think it’s a tie. One ad features a couple where the moment the husband starts talking the wife informs us that he wants to choose the furniture for their home. Then she proceeds to correct his every suggestion until the final item which she okays without any comments, thus surprising him. It seems to perpetuate the idea of a wife who finds fault with everything that her husband does or says. And then there is the other ad where the wife nudges her husband to tip the person who is putting their furniture together. Every time she does that I feel like asking – Lady, why don’t you dip into your own pocket to tip the guy? I am riled at the suggested cliche that it is the man’s duty to pay.

On the other end of the spectrum are the ads themed around a kid and a dad. I watch all the ads every time they are aired. They are totally cute, even when there are no dialogues. But the problem is that I am having trouble remembering what the ads are about. So there is a definite disconnect here between the product being marketed and the ad that is supposed to market it.

Then there is an ad, I believe of some health insurance company that tells the viewer that they should go for the said insurance because their ill-health should not make their family sacrifice anything (son’s bike or wife’s jewellery). I feel that while the message is right the tone is not only wrong but probably jarring for the Indian populace where parents consider it their duty to provide for not only their children’s education but also their marriage.

Lucky’s Corner (On the way to Matheran)

We were in for a pleasant surprise while on our way to Matheran this weekend. The entire stretch of road from Neral to Matheran, which once could have served well as a training ground for ISRO’s Mangalyaan, has now been completely revamped – save for a small area where the last part of the work is being completed. God bless the souls of those who thought of this and those who worked on this!

Anyone who has travelled by road along this part of the world would know that there aren’t many eating places around. Lucky’s is probably the neatest of them all, certainly the biggest - though a restaurant called ‘Namak’ could probably surpass it in near future in that aspect. We have passed Lucky many times during our journeys but had dared to venture inside only a couple of months back. Though the menu boasts of a lot of things we had ordered simple daal-chaawal and masala papad, which had turned out to be one hell of a satisfying meal – prompting us to stop there again on our way back to Mumbai for omelettes. That visit too had gone well.

So on Saturday we decided to have our lunch there before heading onwards to Matheran. We ordered Daal Fry, Paneer Butter Masala and Naan. I had also asked for Khichiya (a kind of a stretched papad) but the server regretfully informed that it wasn’t available. They took longer to serve this time, probably because of the Paneer dish. But when the meal was served it more than made up for the delay. The daal was thick, tasty and had a home-cooked feel about it. The Paneer was soft and the gravy wasn’t overwhelmed by spices the way it is at some eateries serving Punjabi food – definitely easy on tummy. The Naan, in my humble opinion, had too much of butter on it but I was glad to find that it was also soft, and didn’t look like it could give a chewing gum a run for its money!

The place has a good-sized garden surrounding it with lots of rose bushes and a group of ducks waddling about so you feel relaxed as you sit down for your meal. I wish though that they would go for a bigger fish tank – you feel sorry for the fish as there is hardly any room for them to move about (those from the cities would know the pain!). Oh, and while you are at it, can you also remove the portrait of the elephant who looks as if he will charge at the unsuspecting diners at any moment? :) The staff is courteous and friendly. And if you land there well before 1pm you can have the entire place to yourself.

With the good roads and good food, there is no reason not to head to Matheran more often for that much-needed supply of pure O2. :)

I will not be able to quite put my finger to the ‘why’ of it but there is something immensely satisfying about an India win against Pakistan. Yeah, yeah, I know that it is not politically correct to say so. But the plain truth is that I felt like joining the crowd that was seen dancing to their hearts’ content in the streets across India. Oh, and you know what was even more satisfying? The sight of the Pakistanis destroying their TV screens in anger and frustration :) Of course the skeptic in me wondered if the footage captured was really from Pakistan or from some Indian city where the locals had dressed up as Pakistanis. These days you can never be sure how much the news being aired to your living rooms has been dressed up.

Talking about dressing, I wonder what in the world was Anju Chopra wearing. Was she there as a woman cricketer or as the ‘so-called’ eye-candy aka Mandira Bedi.

जो अपनी जात से अंजुमन कहा जाये
वो शख्स तक मुझे तनहा दिखाई पड़ता  है

(Forwarded)

National Handloom Expo 2015

When: 6th - 27th February

Timing: 2pm-9pm, 12pm-9pm (on Sunday and public holidays)

Where: Bandra Reclamation Ground No.1, in front of Leelavati Hospital, Bandra (W)

Zoo – James Patterson

If you like animals, don’t read this one. Ever. I am not member of the pet-the-stray-cat group but I can admire animals from a distance. You can never be too careful around stray dogs but the other day I found myself wincing as a cute lab passed me in the street along with his owner, imagining what horrors it could unleash if he suddenly started viewing the people around him as threats. That’s the kind of effect this novel can have on you.

The plot is simple – and sinister. And not beyond the realm of possibilities. It can happen. It can be summed up in one sentence – the animal kingdom is going berserk and attacking humans. At the beginning, this is noticed by only a few people – most notably by one Jackson Oz, who has been shunned by the community of scientists because he is voicing his concern about it and no one is taking him seriously. That changes when Jackson, on a trip to Botswana, manages to record the behavior of a pride of lions that is so bizarre and directly flying into the face of all the available knowledge that these same academicians have to sit up and take notice. And just when they have begun to do so, all hell breaks loose, all over the world.

Like I mentioned before, the plot isn’t unreasonable. And that’s why it chills you right to the bones. You find yourself torn between the opposing feelings – horror at the ghastly deaths that you don’t want to read even a word more about and a reluctance to put the book down simply because you want to know what happen will next.

I don’t think I will look at the dogs and cats with complete ease ever again :(