Going to Goa

If there are no last minute change of plans, I should be, in another twenty-four hours, in Goa for a three-day get-together with the IIMB gang. I will be the only bachelor there and so am stacking three books in the bag because I expect to be left alone for long periods: I know what the sun, the sand and the water does to your libido.

I am reading a little after a long time. Among Others, I finished Mohd. Hanif's 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes' a few weeks back. I moved on to one of my favorite sub-continent author, Mohd. Hanif's 'A Wasted Vigil'. And now I am halfway through Daniyaal Mueenuddin's 'In Other rooms, Other Wonders'. (A reading by the author of one of the stories here)

Good. Better. Best.

I might have rhapsodized for pages about Hanif and Aslam here if I had not moved on to "Other Rooms." Other Rooms is simply, without a doubt, the best literature in English I have ever read on post-colonial subcontinent life. I will stop here, as this is not about the book. But I will definitely read this collection twice again this year. It's that good.

I am carrying with me to Goa Dead Man Walking, Paddy Clark, and Midnight's Children.