Futurist

Way back in 2009 I published a short story that was set in the near ‘Future’. 2021. We are in that Future now. One thing I can confidently say is that I did not predict any of the events of 2021. But I do stand by the original concept of my story, and I think the contracts I describe may become widespread. In the Future. This time I’m not setting a date.

// Your Dancing Could Scare the Sea //

#TourismThrowback. My poem Algarve Cliffs has just been published in the journal Creative Flight.
I wrote it many years ago during a walk on some cliffs in the Algarve, just as the title says.
When I say ‘wrote’ I mean it formed in my head as the walk progressed and I put it down on paper later.

Algarve Cliffs

High where the earth has been roasting
red dust covers my shoes, fills the crevices
between the curved top of my plimsolls
and my ankles in their white socks.
It’s a guided walk and what I absorb
are the warnings given at each step,
the leader’s constant exhortations:

Don’t broil too long in the sun
lest you pucker up dehydrated
hat, water
don’t walk too close to the edge
lest you meet your fate
in the rocks that are lodged in wait
under the sparkling water

This precipice is prone to crumbling;
admire the jaggedness, stay on the path
walk single file, especially right at the top
hat, water
don’t slide don’t slip, don’t venture
to the brink, lest you collapse
with the escarpment into the brine.

In the past just a glimpse of the sea could please my heart.

What if the guide sees my secret in my eyes?
He’ll admonish:
Don’t dance under the noon sun.
It scorches.
You could shatter the earth
which in this spot is fragile.
Your dancing could scare the sea.

Five Desi Faves podcast

Here are the five dog-eared books I mention in my podcast for DesiBooks hosted by Jenny Bhatt. My selections are very different from each other but I learnt something from all.

Episode 19 features Shubhanga Pandey talking about the importance and ethos of Himal South Asian journal, and in the next segment at 49:38 minutes you can hear my piece on ‘Five Desi Faves’.

Manual For A Decent Life

UK edition released 1 November 2020
Intelligent and Perceptive Reviews are rolling in!
Published by Linen Press in the U.K & Brighthorse Books in the U.S.
Available globally in print or e-book. Get your copy now.

‘This ambitious novel is both epic and intimate as Jindal moves seamlessly between domestic family scenes, the passion of an illicit love affair and the instability of political parties vying for power at any cost. The writing is accomplished, the story is thrilling with a bombshell of an ending.’

https://amzn.to/3i6urk6

This stunning crisply paced novel reveals its interwoven themes and storylines in social-realistic style. Manual For a Decent Life is excitingly ambitious, exploring dilemmas around politics, gender and sex at a fascinating moment in Indian history.
– Michele Roberts, author of the Booker-Prize-shortlisted Daughters of the House.

The rapid pace of the plot makes for edge-of-seat excitement.
– Saleem Peeradina, author of Heart’s Beast: New and Selected Poems.

A compelling novel that is impossible to put down.
– Manju Kapur, author of Difficult Daughters.

A heart-searching novel with a wide sweep. Its themes of Indian family, female identity and power struggles are of contemporary significance.
– Russell Celyn Jones, author of The Ninth Wave.

More Reviews

The book drips with symbolism and portent… This book will live with me.
– The Book Review. Read the full review here.

Manual For A Decent Life is filled with energy and sensuality, and Jindal serves a satisfying feast for the adventurous reader.
– Gabrielle Barnby

Lyrical prose and great characters kept me hooked to the end.
Tracy Fells in The Literary Pig. Read the full review here.

It is a fascinating love story set in the political turmoil of that time, an account of how people adapt themselves to these shifts of power and values, as it raises important questions about the independence of women and the choices that they make in that society.
– Jennifer Wong

An authentic book that needed to be written… This world we see; restrictive and conservative, then glamorous and modern, makes the book unique.
– Mona Dash

I was particularly fond of, and impressed by, the wider set of characters each playing their parts in the overarching narrative. Waheeda’s friends and family feel very real. We are forced to contemplate the extent to which we are all prepared to risk not only our careers and social standing, but our family and friends simply to fulfil desire.
– Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

Maybe I have led too sheltered a life, but I have to admit I was taken aback by some of the sex scenes in the book.
– Eastern Eye

A riveting book. The kind you’d read in one sitting, if only you didn’t want to pause and reflect over the depth of the situations hidden behind the almost simple prose. The kind of book you want to re-read, immediately after turning the last page.
– Reader Review

A masterly account of one woman’s lone battle – (albeit aided and abetted patronizingly) to get elected. Woven into it are hauntingly lovely descriptions of the finer and grimmer versions of day to day life.
– Reader Review

Brilliant, edifying, terrifying.
– Reader Review

I had trouble putting this book down once I began. The writing is masterful.
– Reader Review

Links to Reviews

The Book Review Literacy Trust. Read the full review here.
Asian Review of Books
Rebekah Lattin Rawstrone
Ars Artium
Amazon
Goodreads
An Interview with The Literary Pig

Buy now:
You can order from bookstores, including Waterstones (UK) and Barnes & Noble (US), or your local indie.
You can buy direct from Linen Press
OR online from Bookshop.org
UK:
USA:
or Amazon (available globally)
UK: https://amzn.to/3i6urk6
USA: https://amzn.to/2WpHlCK
India: https://amzn.to/2UzwSDk
Canada: https://amzn.to/2UzwWD4
Australia: https://amzn.to/3aCUNaH

 

Read the opening chapter of the novel at berfrois.