Synopsis "Samosas And Ale: Stories With An Indian Flavour (in English)"
This is a collection of short stories with an Indian connection. Many are set in India, but it is also about the diaspora. They events happen mostly in the present or in the recent past, but Majunga, a story set in the Malagasy Republic includes the true story of the auction of a ship in the early twentieth century. The story about the invention of the pressure cooker is set in an unspecified past, when India was ruled by Mughal Emperors. Kokilakshi is a revised version of The Ticking Clock, which appeared on Create Space a few years ago. The title, Samosas And Ale inspired by Mr Somerset Maugham's Cakes & Ales (which itself came from Shakespeare) might suggest that these are all cheerful and happy tales, but there are also stories of abuse, abduction and the dishonourable practice which is called, without irony, honour-killing. Many of the themes will be recognised by Indian readers, but will intrigue others. Sibling rivalry is universal, but it does not always spring from the same source. In the story Brotherhood, one brother is an eminent surgeon living in Edinburgh whilst the other one struggles to make a living in Kolkata. The love they share is deep but not unalloyed. The tensions between them is revealed to be rooted in one unforgettable incident when they were still in shorts. My Grandson The Detective very aptly tells how the eponymous character living in Bhopal solves a crime committed in the United Kingdom, by reading about it in English papers. In Sunrise In Goa, a Scottish prostitute holidaying in Goa strikes a friendship with a Catholic priest and spends the night in his house, with unforeseen results. A famous Scottish writer, in India to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival picks the most ungainly waiter at the Taj Mahal Hotel to spend the night with. What makes a proud haughty no-nonsense agnostic businessman suddenly decide to go on a pilgrimage on foot? Did the man who has come to Candolim to write have another agenda? Is he a paedophile? In the Maupassant story, will the victim of a rape seek retribution in the manner the Corsican widow avenged the death of her son? In a story about the tyranny of love, a son confronts his father who killed him with kindness. All the stories explore the human condition with great insight. All human life is here!
