Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Mother Pious Lady - Santosh Desai

Over a hundred columns and articles written by Santosh Desai, a social scientist, advertising professional, on various aspects of life in India. Its an amused look but full of deep insight, humour and is very well written.

Santosh Desai takes off on our traffic, shopping, festivals, cars, cricket, clothes, morality, sex, weddings, loudspeakers, commentators, autorickshaws...the lot. Sample this.

"The act of ordering skirted the fine line between temptation and restraint as our eyes danced between the left side of the menu and the altogether oppressive right side, and every one carefully articulated their lack of hunger or their preference for dishes with the least heart-attacking price tags. And means were never complete without someone commenting as to how home food was so much better in any case, something that made the expense incurred on eating out all the more Pyrrhic.'

The intriguing title is from the article on marriage ads which apparently mention the mother's status on piety. And other very interesting stuff.

Of such gems is it made. Funnily, I had this book with me for long, but it was only after reading about it in another book that I decided to read it. I am glad I did it. Santosh uses just the right words and says it just right. Very enjoyable read.

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