Author: Jaspreet Singh
Publisher: IndiaInk
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 151
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8186939296
Description
17 tomatoes is a series of linked stories that revolve around two Sikh bys coming of age in an Indian Army camp in Kashmir. Each story takes a minor character from the previous tale and builds a new tale, weaving a collective portrait of the border community. In addition to the boys, Adi (a student of gardens) and Arjun (a budding chemist), we meet a boatman’s daughter, a celebrity cricket umpire and Parachute Aunty. From modern missiles to cricket matches, from religious miracles to the sumptuous gardens of Shalimar and Nishat, Singh treats beauty, politics, and religion in a gentle and humane manner.
REVIEWS
Seventeen Tomatoes is a quiet but worthy debut, a love letter penned to the many-faced land of Singh’s youth.
-Montreal Review of Books
Draws of Salman Rushdie and Ben Okris’s pioneering examples of Straightfaced exaggeration to describe the merry-go-round of characters and regional customs that enchant and upset.
-Quill and Quire
Funny, tragic, elegantly told, these tales from Kashmir should be read everywhere.
-Kristen Den Hartog, author of Water Wings
Contents
Angle of Heaven
Seventeen Tomatoes
Hair
Border Cricket
Nooria
Captain Faiz
Student of Gardens
Tiger
Arjun
Small Pain
Parachute Aunty
Remover of Obstacles
Garden of Fidelity
Heaven