Words From Vaish

I once rented an apartment in a pleasant residential block of flats in Dwarka sub-city, National Capital Region. The residents’ homes there were all equipped with washing machines that took care of the laundry. However, that still left the problem of the ironing. The busy working couples inhabiting the society seldom had the leisure or the stamina to perform this seemingly minor chore at the close of an often exhausting day. And as neatly pressed clothes were essential for a smart turnout in the office, the Residents Welfare Association misguidedly gave the contract for providing this service to a burly, surly native of eastern UP. Barrel-chested, with an incipient paunch to match, this gentleman gave the impression of resenting this employment as being beneath him. This was much too low; he was destined for greater things – which unfortunately never materialized (like Achche Din ). This resentment found expression in his “work”; he accepted clothes for pressing

A Murder On Malabar Hill Perveen Mistry Investigates Sujata Massey Penguin Books 2018                                                426 Pages There are some “whodunnits” that greatly benefit from a strong sense of place such as Sherlock Holmes’ fog-shrouded Victorian London of 1897 and the 1930s-1940s California of Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe.  Sujata Massey’s excellent A Murder On Malabar Hill set in 1920s colonial Bombay (now Mumbai) is just such a work. The sights, smells and sounds of this period are so richly evoked that this novel has the heft and feel of an epic, rather than just a simple mystery. The teeming city - with its evocative architecture and cuisine, its social interactions, complex ethnic politics, multi-faceted religious, caste and gender dynamics - is as much an actor as Ms. Massey’s varied cast of finely drawn characters.    Chief among these is Perveen Mistry, the only practicing woman solicitor in this fictional Bomb