India, July 20 -- Dear Reader,

When I return home to Mumbai, my second-favourite thing is being reunited with my books. I wander through the different rooms, and through the morning my desk piles up with a mixed collection - there's Money, Myths and Mantras which has arrived in my absence, there's Eliot's book of Bookish Lists that I bought a few months ago and is just pure fun to dip into and From Volga to Ganga, which is now on my reading list along with books on rivers from all around the world.

My favourite thing is meeting my book club friends. These readers, people I first met because of our shared love of the written word, these strangers have now turned into my best friends. On Sunday, they troop in for breakfast carrying podi i...