Diwali is the official excuse. I have been munching non-stop since my return from Paris (to make up for all the cheese.... oooh.... how i love that fromage)! I needed something spicey and lethal to get those tastebuds to start functioning again. I found the perfect answer in bakarwadis, chaklis and the indecently tasty Kolhapuri chivda. Then there were the puran polis to 'sample' (after three of them - one with homemade ghee, another soaked in warm milk and the third eaten with bits of green chilly pickle), I had to stop calling it 'sampling'. Okay. I hogged. Gunaah hai kya??
Just to keep my mind off food, I wrote and wrote and wrote all day. And changed my voice on the phone whenever someone I didn't wish to speak to called up.I am like Kishore Kumar - I do voices. Pretty convincingly at that. Since I answer most calls myself, my 'official' voice is pretty scarey. Does it deter the determined? Naaaah.
Tomorrow, I head to Bandra yet again. This time to shoot with Karan Thapar. I don't know why interviewees shudder and shake at the prospect of being grilled by Thapar. He is an absolute pussycat - I adore him. He has interviewed me many times over the years and I have always found the experience exhilerating. This one promises to be a real cracker of an interview. Karan told me I am seen as a symbol of liberal, progressive, exciting Mumbai. Cry, my beloved city. We don't need symbols. We need a Rapid Action Force in areas that are being ravaged. Well.... I shall do my best as a symbol. But frankly, Mumbai needs a chief minister who knows his job far more!