English August - Upamanyu Chatterjee

The 80's cult book.. It captures the uncertainties and obscureness in the life of Agastya Sen, an IAS fresh recruite posted in the dead-town of Madna and how he finally decides that IAS is so not for him. Its cynical, sarcastic and of course funny.. specially in places where Agastya or August explains the history and the significance of his name.
Like Gulzar mentions in BnB... its all about "Khali bore dupehron se" and how the almost always high on mariajuana August manages to survive it all.
Well it must have all stemed from Upamanyu's personal experience in the services.
The book certainly makes a good read but being too cynical in places.. you wouldn't want to go back it again.
Now that it is made into a movie (as the cover page mentions in big bold letters)... hoping to catch sometime in the near future.

Kardamom Kisses - Shinie Antony

Super... after a long time! The last equally good one that i read was Ravan n Eddie. It is realistic as most Indian novels tend to be but the narration and the way it is presented is interesting. The initial part of the narration is through Drupa, the second daughter of Mangala, a keralite and Kedar, a punjabi singer. The cultural and intellectual differences have lead to their separation and the kids are initially living with their mom in a small town in Kerala and the second half is begins with Kedar taking the children off to Delhi. The humor is very good, specially when the author describes both the cultures, the attitude of the people around etc although i feel she has been a bit partial to the Keralite part of drupa's family :).
Here is what she has she say about her book (as quoted in a newspaper):

(it is)actually a plethora of numbers - single mothers, two sisters, triplet
aunts and a person with four breasts. This novel is more mathematical than
familial

Whats noteworthy is that both Chetan and Shinie thank each other in their respective novels, but both the novels are so diametrically different from one another!!!

Recommended....

One night @ the call centre - Chetan Bhagat

A let down after the hugely popular 'Five point someone', this book isn't as engrossing as the first one. It starts off well, but seems dragged a bit in between and gets very predictable at the end. One very visible difference between the two books being that while FPS was very much autobiographical, One night... seems to be a researched book and the effort becomes very evident.
The story revolves around Shyam, Priyanka, Vroom, Esha, Radhika and Military uncle and their one frustrating night at the call centre. The male bonding (the USP of the first book) works again and the humour between Shyam and Vroom is enjoyable, but the girls could have been presented better. Military uncle in hardly in the picture...
Could have been better....