Animal Obsession

I was waiting for Annie at the Forum Mall on Saturday afternoon. I started off with checking out neckties at the Raymond Shop. I love neckties and I splurge on them. If I see one I like, I pick it up. No second thoughts.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a single necktie that I liked (or didn't already have) at this particular shop. I decided to check out planet Fashion for more and was still dissappointed. I found out, to my surprise, that the patterns and designs usually available in Mumbai, are conspicuously absent in Bangalore! Seized with this understanding, I swept through other shops and found the pattern (pun not intended) repeating over and over again. I even spoke to the salespeople and all but one expressed their ignorance of the subject. The 'one' said that Bangalore people may prefer more 'formal' attire and hence the contrast?

So there I was, surrounded by pinstripes and checkered jacquards and jackasses...but not a tie to buy.

I decided to visit Landmark, the bookshop in Forum. I was planning to find a book on squirrels but instead, I found 'Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?' by Louis V Gerstner, Jr. - ex-CEO/Chairman of IBM, and the man responsible for architecting and executing IBM's historic turnaround. He was wearing a nice tie on the cover, so I decided to buy it. I also picked up Jack Welch's Jack: Straight From The Gut.

I also called up Arya to check if he needed any books... this seemed like a place where you could find stuff. He immediately reeled off the name 'Thomas Davenport', a name that he claimed was unavailable in Mumbai. I enquired at the helpdesk and surprise, surprise the search yielded at least 8 results!! We were gloating over this when the helpdesker pointed out that they had no copies left. Further research told us that the copies were last seen in 1997 and there was no way that we could order for new ones.

The Elephant book is pretty good. LG is a good writer and an insightful one at that. I wanna write a book like that someday. Maybe I will call it 'Who Says Squirrels Can't Prance?'..

So hange.