It's all about that deft turn of phrase. Ian Jack's Mofussil Junction is chock- full of them. Mean and unrewarding towns are mentioned; a train is described as festooned with peasantry; we are introduced to Mr Thomas who had wayward English.
My paisa vasool bits were :`...endearingly, he once pushed a family servant into the garden pool,` a vignette from Sanjay Gandhi's early life.
And `Only after visiting this hotel I realized what the poet meant when he wrote that thing of beauty is joy forever,` an entry in the hotel's appreciation book by a railway minister.