Read Carrying on by Stewart Tolnay, for no clear reason a posteriori! The story centres in a successful sociology senior professor in an imaginary university in Seattle (which also appears in the 1996 Sentinel), who finds himself arm-bent into becoming the new HoD and the subsequent difficulties he faces against some contrarian colleague. While this should obviously appeal to me, and despite the novel being written by a former faculty at Udub, the scenario quickly plummets down to unimaginable depths of boredom and suspension of belief. The main character is transparent, with a whining tendency and a personality as solid as a sodden marshmallow, and the other ones are almost uniformly caricatures as perfect representatives of minorities. Without getting into spoiling details, the main antagonist to this unlikely HoD conveniently accumulates all “qualities” a colleague should not possess, with an unrealistic ability to cross most of the department. More glaringly, research seems unimportant, except when applying for an NSF grant or when attending a conference where the future HoD behaves in a most unethical way imho. Add to this an endless accumulation of details about a new dog acquired by the HoD to recover from a divorce (!) and the collection of all the menus enjoyed by the HoD and his friend, and there is no compelling reason to carry on.
Also read Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, the Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 jointly received by Banu Mushtaq, the author of the short stories in Kannada and Deepa Bhasthi, her translator into English. A beautiful, moving, profound book that builds on the everyday woes of Karnataka Muslim women to expose the wrongs of a deeply patriarchal society that denies freedom and autonomy to women. The writing style is deceptively set at a narrative level that could be found in mundane conversations, with a powerful translation, grounded in collaboration with the author, keeping some words from the original, that is prize-worthy by itself!, but may mean readers from other cultures missing some aspects of the book. In the postface, the translator Deepa Bhasthi exposes her difficulties and choices, pointing out at the differences in the Kannada versions both women speak. The Booker recognition is both definitely richly deserved for a unique piece of literature and for signaling the richness and diversity of Indian literature that Modi’s goons would like to replace by an Hindu monoculture.
Another great 
We were hoping for a smoother e-visa processing in 
This passage was also a foodie’s dream trip, as we discovered many new dishes, like a spicy chicken cooked in bamboo stick in an open fire and many local breads, e.g., illyappams, parathas, idlis, vellayapams, puttus, challas, and orottis, plus plenty of local dishes. Bought all kinds of spices. Celebrated New Year’s eve in Kochi by a light dinner with friends, at a local Saravana Bhavan branch that actually differed much from the one around the corner from 
The trip back was uneventful and reasonably delayed, considering that Delhi airport was shrouded in heavy fog and pollution, and as cold as Paris. With the incredible coïncidence of Didier Fraix-Burnet (IPAG) travelling the same flight Delhi-Paris as me, him returning from visiting 
Our trip from Paris (CDG) to Bengaluru got a wee bit (!) perturbed by 2x bad luck, with a first plane grounded for damages to a wing and a second plane flashing an alarm signal just as it was accelerating to take off, which induced an extra hour of tests, plus an unexpected long wait to get the e-visa at the Bengalore airport, resulting in an arrival in town at 5:30 am! A good thing that 
I was glad to be back at the (Tata) Indian Institute of Science and its wonderful campus for the 
The (touristy) train trip to Mysore was most pleasant, on an air-conditioned carriage with food vendors proposing their wares all along the journey, great views of the countryside and an arrival sharp on time. The reverse trip to the airport was less successful as the 
