If you're silly and you know it, just sit there and hum a showtune...

Last week, I found this quaint little book store on 2435 East street. It is an awesome place filled with dusty bookshelves and it is very cramped too, but the good kind of cramped. HM and I sort of wandered in and I was instantly reminded of the library at the Bombay High Court. Same dusty old bookshelves and slightly dank odour coupled with the lovely vibe of profound wisdom that only comes from old books. I was instantly mesmerized and felt a lot like I'd fallen down the famous rabbit hole and arrived in wonderland. Very few places make me feel like this. While I twirled around like a drunk idiot, HM bought the latest issue of Harvard Business Review. Surprising, since just about everything in the store was quite old. The payment counter had an old tin box with a handle and the owner was stuffing his money in it. No cash register and all. I was then convinced that the old world charm was just a result of plain languidness on part of the owner. He presumably had a computer in the back because I happened to ask him about Arundhati Roy's books and he conjured up a printed list of her complete works in no time and also declared that he had all of them. Very impressive. I also spotted the latest issues of every fashion magazine on earth and I just wanted to jump around in excitement but I didn't. Some of them were way out of my budget. Anyhoo, if you're in Pune and you like books you should totally visit this place. It looks really unimpressive and plain from the outside but don't be judgemental about it. It has a really good collection and I can't wait to go back and get some more books.
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In other news, I saw this completely naked man on my way to work. His nudity wasn't the jarring kind and I was more bothered about the fact that he didn't have any clothes on in this bad weather. I was instantly reminded of HM's old clothes and raincoat and how the 'nangu aadmi' could use them. But I don't know if it would be appropriate for a woman to approach a nude stranger with a bundle of old clothes. I mean, in my head it is a pretty okay thing to do if you consider the thought behind it, but as HM would say, "It would be wrong on so many counts". Sometimes I feel like people overthink normal stuff and then everything begins to feel and look wrong. Too much of thinking never did anyone any good. But I suppose now the 'nangu aadmi' will have to roam around like that till I can convince some man to go deliver the old clothes to him. I'm thinking that it will be a difficult task because even that would be 'wrong on so many counts' if you think about it. Pwah!
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I tried my hand at making Chicken Biryani and it turned out so good! I marinated the chicken overnight and it made the meat very flavourful. I also fried some onions and chopped up a lot of coriander and mint and put all this on top of the rice when I layered all of it on the chicken. Some of the chicken caught the pan and it didn't burn. Instead, it got this wonderful smoky flavour and that was just too good for words. I am going to make some more biryani very soon. Yum!
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This picture is for all those who like me, love the monsoons but only from the warm confines of their comfortable homes. I have had the very educational experience of walking around in the rain during my stint in Mumbai. My office was at the Bandra Kurla Complex and the Kurla station is synonymous to unspeakable filth during the rains. I have walked around in knee-deep sewage water to get to work on time, dressed in expensive trousers from Globus and a very nice F21 blazer. Good times.