Nikki is rebellious against parental authority and traditional Indian values, and is the polar opposite of her sister Mindy who is looking to meet someone of her own culture for a traditional arranged marriage that wins familial approval. The main protagonist is Nikki a modern woman of Punjabi heritage who is trying to navigate out of a rut in her emotional and professional life. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected-and exciting-kind.Īs more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community's 'moral police.' But when the widows' gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife-a modern woman like Nikki-and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.This is a very entertaining story that touches on myriad themes of tradition, community and belonging in an East meet West setting. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. When her father's death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a 'creative writing' course at the community center in the beating heart of London's close-knit Punjabi community.īecause of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, she's spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life.

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women's lives at all ages-a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.

Stories of punjabi widows