Fiction: A real-estate developer’s journal about his tiresome run-ins with middlemen and politicians

6/7: Have set my mind on either doing our neighbourhood Durga Puja in a huge way – every politician worth his name has one that is informally named after him; it is a necessary accoutrement to advertise one’s arrival and growth, and also to generate revenues to improve the standard of communal living in our locality.

Accordingly, held a brainstorming session with Chuno, Puti, Jagai, and Madhai to explore ideas and gather feedback. The first order of discussion was whether we should take over the small and lacklustre local puja run by a bunch of fuddy-duddies with no idea of how to make it enjoyable, having stuck to the age-old tradition of collecting subscriptions as low as 50 rupees from the local residents – or to set up my own. I was inclined towards the latter option as I could do what I liked without any carping and cavilling from the Old Brigade, but I was persuaded instead to go for the takeover route – the “50-year-old” tagline that we could tack on to everything would burnish our profile more than any new-fangled puja.

That having been decided, the next logical thing was to put our heads together to figure out how to take...

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