Home for the Hallidays

Websters dictionary defines a cliche as something that has become overly familiar or commonplace. Every year, a few new ones get minted due to something capturing the public interest and dominating conversations. 2020 was no exception. It spawned a bunch like Pandemic, New normal , Lockdown or Sir your video is on, please put on some pants. While 2020 is likely to be remembered only as a year of the pandemic, we witnessed so much more than just Corona. Home for the Hallidays is a collection of humour essays that captures just that from Deepak Sridhars eyes. Its a bumpy Bangalore auto ride through the zeitgeist of 2020: Encounter killings that have better plots than Race 2, Donald Trump and the horses of Philadelphia, IPL matches with no crowds, breaking a fixed deposit to buy petrol and much more. And much like his conversations with a bartender after 4 drinks, Deepaks essays dont shy away from getting deeply personal. With his trademark Bangalore bar uncle perspective, Sridhar writes essays that capture the different absurdities that urban Indians witnessed each week as we moved from non stop lockdowns to un-ironically saying Unlock 7.0. He relies on everything from Bollywood references to his investing diaper money in cryptocurrency to satirise the crazy year we lived through. Sit back, pour yourself a large old monk, crack this book open and in the words of the late great satirist Chaucer: Enjoy Maadi.