News came this morning that Aravind Adiga, a Mangalorean, had won the Man Booker Prize.

A Kannadiga friend in Delhi, all excited about it, sent me a link to Adiga's 2006 article on Mangalore.

Adiga, who moved out of that coastal city in 1991, revisited it 15 years later, only to find that he couldn't recognise his neighbourhood.

He connects the changes to the boom in Tier 2 cities that the marketers keep talking about. ...

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Usually, at this time of the year, India is in a celebratory mood. But things look bleak this time because of the global meltdown.

India, they say, is better off than most countries, but just look around you will know many here are worried. The shops aren't doing great business yet, but will perhaps pick up as we get closer to Deepavali.

In my column, I attempted to write about how fortunes had suddenly changed in the last week:

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When our reporter Bhanuprakash went checking Govardhan Murthy's background on Thursday, he found that the tycoon-on-the-run was building a mansion with a helipad.  

The law has caught up with Govardhan Murthy. Two inspectors went to Kochi and arrested him when he was trying to flee with a gentleman called Langda Babu.

If not for Govardhan Murthy allegedly shooting actor Vinod Kumar dead, no one outside his circle would have known about the extent of his wealth.
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Earlier this week, a film producer shot dead an acquaintance, and is now on the run.

Govardhan Murthy, who produced the flop Shivarajkumar film Maadesha, pulled out his gun and fired two rounds at Vinod, who was visiting him at his resort for a party. The bullets pierced Vinod's stomach, and he died a little later.

Real estate has done strange things to Bangalore, which most visitors from bigger cities used to describe as sleepy. This city is bustling 24/7, and has given up the luxury of sleep. The demand for land has made millionaires out of people who lived modestly till recently. They don't know what to do with the money: much of it is unaccounted....

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