How I learned to stop worrying about the traffic and love the books (again)

Yeah, that Peter Seller’s movie is funny. But there is nothing funny about the traffic in Bangalore. Okay, maybe you’ll be amused for a day or two and then it starts getting on your nerves. D, the more grown up between the two of us always tells me that I should stop worrying about things that are out of my control. You know what, that is the right attitude, but it is hard when you rush out of home and you are running late for a meeting or a call or something and you have to battle the uncountable wheels and people and bad roads. And it is close to impossible to dial in to these darned meetings too. Thank you noise!

Anyhoo, let’s move on already. I guess the title of this post summarizes it all. I started (rather got back to) reading during these long commutes (I don’t drive here yet!). It helps me take my mind off the traffic and the noise and worrying about the commute times and wondering how things will improve, if at all. By the way, I guess you guys must have read about the release of the 1 lakh rupee tata nano toy car. How, just how, I wonder these roads will be able to take more traffic, and four wheelers at that. We’ll see. But I digress. I was telling you about my book. So, I am reading this book called “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai. It won the booker prize in 2006 and I came across it, quite by accident. Or I should say, I was left with very few choices and I happened to pick this up. I had a list of books that I have wanted to read for a while now. So one afternoon, after lunch, a colleague and I walked across the street to the book store, which they claim, by the way that they are one of the most reputed book sellers in the city. They look posh, no doubt (what with being in the Leela Galleria and all) but their collection sucks. I picked the name of the books, one at a time from my list and asked the dude at the desk to help me find them. Nope, I found none! So, I decided to give Ms. Desai a shot. It hasn’t been bad so far. I’ll post my review after I am done reading it.

Oh, and this one other rant I have to write about. The ring tones on cell phones. Whatever happened to the concept of just having your phone ring, as simply as possible to tell you to answer the damn call. No. Everyone needs entertainment with each call or message they get these days. And, it also looks like your personality is judged (or assessed, or whatever) by the kind of jazzy ring tone on your cell phone. Hmph! Kids.

I think I will end this random going-nowhere post here. See you all soon.