Recently read about a new movie Via Darjeeling. The story is about a honeymooner Ankur who disappears in Darjeeling. A couple of years later, the investigating officer discusses the case at a booze party with his friends. Each one of them plays arm chair sleuth and comes up with a new reason as to why and where Ankur must have disappeared. The plot reminded me of the much hyped Aarushi murder case because over the last one month or so, that's what most of India has been talking about. Everywhere you go, someone brings up the topic and gives his/her own version of what happened that fateful night. And neither the police nor the CBI officers have been any different. Each of the departments are floating theories to prove the other wrong. For most people, the way this case unfolded was something straight out of magazines like 'Manohar Kahaaniyan' which you get at railway stations. And it was like a treat to a nation...

"Rain, rain go away, Come again another day, Little Johnnie wants to play, Rain, rain go away." This was a rhyme I had never understood as a child. Who the deuce would want rains to go away? Having been brought up in the arid Saurashtra region of Gujarat, most of us used to replace little Johnnie's whining song with a Gujarati rhyme 'Aav re varsaad' (meaning rains please do come). Rains were always welcome where I came from. The exuberance shown in the Lagaan song couldn't even begin to match the exuberance of people in my sleepy little home town when the first drops touched the earth. After that everywhere you would find people quoting poems, teenagers gazing out their windows; mooning over their latest crush or writing some silly poems, moms busy preparing pakodas and chai, papas having their fill of the delicacies and kids splashing about. It was an unspoken rule not to wear a raincoat or carry an umbrella during the...

She was waiting in the lobby outside the MHADA chief's office. And like most people who wait outside offices of elusive bureaucrats, we struck up a conversation. Savita was here to tell the MHADA that her old parents had been coerced to consent for redevelopment. And it was not just her family alone, the developer, Shreepati Builders had managed to convince many other senior citizens living in the Juni Chikalwadi chawl in a prime locality in Central Mumbai to give up their property for redevelopment. She said that the developer had convinced most of the parents that their children were driven by greed and if they listened to them, their chawl would never get redeveloped. The developer had successfully managed to divide the two generations in many families. This struck me as a possible story. So there I was next day, at the chawl of 230 rundown houses, badly in need of reconstruction and at the entrance was a board "We have rejected...

Visiting the chana wala once a week is a ritual. So there I was last week to have the spicy chana. "Bhaiya paanch rupaye ka banana," I said. He got busy preparing it and said, "Madam, paanch nahin abhi saat rupaye ka hai." "Kyun pichle hafte to aapne paanch ka diya tha?" "Kya karein madam, sab cheez ka daam badh gaya hai. Toh hamko bhi 2 rupaya badhana pada. Mehangai ka zamaana hai madam." Those chanas left a bitter taste in my mouth. Now many of you reading this may argue that one can't be complaining about two rupees. But its not just the chana. My milkman has increased the rates by 3 rupees a litre. The Udupi hotel down the lane has increased prices of dishes anywhere from 3 to 10 rupees. The corporates have found another method of conning people. They have not increased the prices; but have reduced the quantity of goods in the packets. Every food item in the...