Billie Jean

These are slow days (slow coz...??)...so i popped tothe Inorbit Mall next to my workplace (dnt tel my manager!!!). Checked out new cofy place called 'Gloria Jeans.' I am just abt looking for new cafes all the time. So i nearly squealed and my eyes went wide when I saw it open for business. must go must go!!!
The decor is very well done up with browns and cremes. There's wood panelling all around. I thnk if people ever admitted to structural preferences, they wud confess that wood is the warmest of them all. sorta makes u feel like a farmer in the English countryside, hehe...Now I have a total weakness for cofy places, even tho the cofy is never that great and is always overpriced, hehe...
I ordered the White Chocolate Mocha, taken by its name and the concept of white chocolate with cofy. It was okayish...tad bit different, but that was about it.
I ordered a Non-veg burger along with it. N i thnk i did it purely out of curiosity. wat is a non veg burger?? is it chkn? or some other meat that we dare not take the name of?? like Lord Voldemort? the great mysterious NON VEG BURGER whose origins are dubious. lolz!
turns out it was more like potato than anything else! disappointing!
but who really cares abt the food? like all cafes, hang out...chat up and leave...

The truth and nothing but the truth?

And I finally finished Shantaram! Well actually not now really. Even managed to finish another book in the meantime and start a third (!) But let's talk abt 'S' today.

Let's say we're mixing up Vikram Chandra's 'Sacred Games' with a bit of Bollywood masala. A great hero doesn't ever fall and is at the right time and the right place ALWAYS. A gangster with a heart of gold (excuse my cliches), you'll get urself 'S'. You find that the 'hero', and yes he's put himself up as a hero, is too soul-searching for a criminal. There are constant throw backs on things like conscience and and sentiments. And for someone who has a long criminal record, his language appears very refined (fine editing perhaps?) Too incredulous?

Roberts infuses too much bravado in his style. There is too much happening all the time. After a point, you begin to doubt the authenticity of facts.

But if you can overlook that, and I believe one can, it is quite an entertaining read. It will give u an insider's glance into the dark and grimy world of survival in Bombay. But I do admit, I always wondered abt the many videshis on Indian streets. I thnk I now have a tiny idea of their world.

But if u want some real dirt on Bombay, chk the aforementioned book by Chandra. its a product of years of research with a very no-nonsense approach. Let me use the word 'clinical' in describing it. No sentimental riff-raff.

But back to 'S.' its a tad bit too lengthy. U mite say u cant compass a life in a short book, but much of its length is made of descriptions that cudv been done away with. That is, I feel, one of its biggest shortcomings, the pace slows considerably at places. You need to push urself to read on. I read sumwhr that this book has been selling well in India. I think thts really coz of the 'superhero' element. after all, dnt we just love a guy who's always right?