The Songbird on my Shoulder

The Songbird on my Shoulder is a collection of short spurts of thought, many of which have been in print before in mainstream Indian publications. What you get is a funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes poignant worldview of a Madam who lives in Pune, India - the Oxford of the East, the Home of the Shrewsbury Biscuit, and the road-accident fatality-and-brain-damage capital of the world. This unorthodox mid-life memoir has a particularly revealing section towards the end in the simulated voices of characters such as Bridget Jones, Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and one Batty Watsa whom you might recognize from somewhere. The Songbird on my Shoulder has blurbs from some remarkably important people – in a transparent attempt to prove to readers and critics that it aims to fall into the ‘takin-the-piss’ genre rather than the more prevalent ‘wannabe’ one.