Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

so many things, his family, his thoughts, his views. He talked about Arundhati
Roy and dropping the Narmada Dam and wishing away the country’s corrupt
politicians and letting the Kashmiri people decide their own government. Kenny
G, Beyonce and Israel‐Palestine politics and I mostly listened and tried to look
and hope to be the girl who listens to Britney Spears and Kenny G and knows
everything about the Kashmir issue since 1947. I didn’t read too many books, I
had read some Sidney Sheldons and Danielle Steels when I was in eleventh but
that was it and though I was surrounded by books I didn’t have that much time,
I was the only assistant Deven Sir had and there were books to be ordered, faxes
to be sent, books to be mailed and order copies to be slipped inside envelopes. I
didn’t particularly miss reading either. In fact when Deven Sir had interviewed
me and had asked why I wanted to join the bookstore, I had replied to earn a
living and he had laughed. I am the kind of person who loves Ekta Kapoor
serials —the one which all feminists and most women who come to the
bookstore hate — it’s not because I identify with those scheming women there,
always cooking and sewing and thinking of devious plans, I like watching their
jewellery, their style of wrapping a saree, the newer fabrics of party sarees, their
bindis, their combination in matching bangles, their hair clips and make‐up. I did
once browse some Indian fiction but most of the women had abusive husbands
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