In some ways, she had written, he should be just like me: modest (a prude in Nikki’s opinion), practical with finances (downright stingy) and family-oriented (wants babies immediately). The ideal husband had a stable job and up to three hobbies which extended him mentally and physically.

Both clean-shaven and turban-wearing men were acceptable, provided beards and moustaches were neatly maintained. General preferences for a husband: intelligent, compassionate and kind, with strong values and a nice smile. There was a list of relevant biographical details: name, age, height, religion, diet (vegetarian except for the occasional fish and chips). Nikki stared at the profile her sister had attached to the email. 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. 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