I do not know much about Mohan Deep.

Ah, how I love second-hand bookstores. I was recently in Delhi’s Nehru Place, a sort of collective market for electronic goods.

This week, I’m sticking to the theme of books, but with a twist. I’ve been seeing a lot of writing-as-fashion going around lately, and I’d like to share some of that with you.

I usually carry around a little notebook, it’s a writer thing, and it’s like a stethoscope or something, part of the trade. Anyway, so my little notebook either has sentences that I thought of that I like and write down for future reference, or little doodles when I’m waiting for someone and bored, or bullet points when I’m trying to structure a story. What this little book is also good for is taking down book recommendations, you know, the point in the evening when

Since it’s summertime, and the last thing you want to do is leave your house, I’ve been doing the next best thing and inviting people to come over. This serves two purposes: one, I don’t have to leave and two, I get a chance to experiment with food and drinks and try them out on a willing audience. So far, I’ve never been much of a cook, but with drinks, I can safely say, that I know what I’m doing.

I’m in an Ishiguro state of mind once more. Recently I watched the most brilliant mini-series ever called Downton Abbey, which, really, if you have access to Amazon, you should try and get your hands on. It’s all about this large house in England right before the war, and the lives and intrigues of the masters and servants who live there.

The last two weeks have been spent discussing books I’ve travelled with, and this is the last of the three.

All right, here’s my confession for this week: I’m a little bit ageist. It’s shocking, but it’s true.

Since it is almost Valentine’s Day (at the time of writing this column) it’s not surprising that love is everywhere you look. Restaurants are full of heart-shaped styrofoam, greeting card companies take out full page ads in the daily newspapers, and even my favourite TV shows are inundated with sappy love songs. It’s enough to make even a hardened Valentine’s Day Scrooge like me repent a little bit and think about love. Well, love in books anyway.

I think I recently read the most depressing book in the world, and it was all the cover’s fault.