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 It might not be a book you would be comfortable carrying around because of the quite blatant title, but ‘Erotic Stories for Punjabi Wid­ows’ is an important work that you will want to recommend to every­one you meet.

The novel is audacious in its effort to defy conventions and give voice to older Punjabi women since their voices are rarely, if ever, heard. Also, there are multiple storylines with elements of rom-com, mys­tery, and family saga interwoven into the mix of erotic stories and all that make for good reading for people with different types of book preferences.

Here, the protagonist Nikki is a sin­gle 22-year-old university dropout who lives in London above the pub where she works while she searches for her true calling. Then she kind of finds what she is looking for when she lands up a job as a creative writ­ing instructor at the Sikh temple in Southall, a predominantly Punjabi area of London. Unfortunately, the creative writing class turns out to be an adult literacy class instead and the students—Punjabi widows—don’t even know how to read and write basic English.

Then the women decide that since they have lived in London for so long without speaking a word of English, they would much rather use the class for something construc­tive and begin sharing their stories instead. These stories stem from their dreams and fantasies and are deliciously romantic, erotic, and sometimes even downright scan­dalous, given the community they belong to.

The women know that if the self-appointed ‘guardians’ of South­all find out their secret they will have to face unspeakable wrath but they don’t care. Having been denied the simple pleasures that come with making their own decisions as their lives have always been about what their parents or husbands deemed fit for them, the class is the only place where each woman becomes an individual in her own right and is able to truly express herself. It’s also the thrill of the absence of shame they have carried with them for so long that keeps them going.

Then there is the parallel narrative that’s about Nikki, her relationship with her traditional family as she struggles to fit in as well as escape their ways, and her romance with a boy named Jason who has his own thing going on. You will find yourself cheering for Nikki as well while you pump your fists for the women who seem to be breaking barriers and rewriting their desti­nies. This sexy and heartwarming novel will definitely find a recep­tive audience among women who will want the men in their lives to read it too.

 ‘Stree’ takes a small town urban myth about a mysterious female ghoul to deliver a hor­ror comedy packaged with colorful characters, textured dialogues and good laughs that don’t let the movie down even when the material gets too trite and over the top.

Helmed by newcomer director Amar Kaushik, it is a comedy first and a horror film second. It may simmer a lot to find its footing in the first half, but when its narrative pad­dles finally kick in, it is successful in pulling off the rare feat of marrying horror with comedy.

Every year a weeklong festival is held in the village of Chanderi. For quite some time, this very festival has become the hunting ground for a strange creature that comes at night and abducts the village men. The village folks are so terrified with these mysterious disappear­ances that all houses feature a spell to ward off the evil spirit, who they have simply named Stree (‘The Lady’). Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a local tailor, rubbishes them as mere superstition.

Even when his best buddies are spending their days speculating on the sightings of Stree, Vicky’s more concerned about the reappearance of an out-of-towner beauty (Shrad­dha Kapoor), who only visits Chan­deri during the festival.

Vicky is sure that this time he’ll muster up courage to express his real feelings for her when she approaches him to design a par­ticular dress for her. But Vicky’s romantic pursuits are cut short when one of his friends becomes the latest victim of Stree. He then seeks the help of Hindi pulp novel publisher Rudra (Pankaj Tripathi), a local expert on paranormal activi­ties, to find a way to permanently get rid of Stree.

For the most part, Stree relies on humor through comedic ban­ters. Rao and Tripathi, who shared a terrific chemistry in the dark comedy ‘Newton’, are in top form. Rao is lovable and easily switches back and forth between a gooey eyed lover boy and a terrified ghost buster. Tripathi is the arche­typical wise old guy who has all the answers.

His character has the expositional function of spelling out the finer narrative details about the ghost. A less capable actor may have made the character sound bland and information heavy, but not Trip­athi. He brings a spirited novelty with his conversational delivery that uses Hindi peppered with funnily pronounced English words, a line of tacky old Bollywood song on the ready for any odd situation. Equally effective is Shraddha Kapoor in her role that keeps you guessing about her character’s background and motives.

The film has so much to rave about but it also has many things not going for itself. The initial thirty to forty minutes are marred by pointless songs and lack of narra­tive direction. Some scenes where the tension could’ve been milked for greater comedic effects don’t land properly. But because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously and keeps the affair breezy and light hearted, it’s easy to follow. It right­fully finds rhythm as it goes along and delivers on the promise of the premise.

Stree is a broad comedy but doesn’t take its cinematic liberties for granted to display VFX mayhem to whisk cheap humor and ham-fisted horror thrills. It’s genuinely smart and effectively amiable horror comedy that will certainly inspire more movies in this genre.

 Newly opened in the quaint area of Baluwatar (100 meters on the left towards Maharajgunj from Shivapuri School), the Delish Opera Restro & Banquet is one of the biggest properties in the area. With ample seating space in the restaurant area for more than 100 guests at a time, Opera also has separate family or meeting rooms and a banquet hall that can host 500 people. The dedicated park­ing lot right next to the restaurant is also relieving considering Kathmandu’s parking problems. Opera offers a multi-cuisine menu including Continental, Indian, Thai and Nepali dishes, as well as a wide collection of alcoholic and non-alco­holic beverages. The restaurant opens its doors for lunch, drinks and dinners as well as private parties ranging from small get-togethers to corporate meet­ings and even weddings. The place to organize Teej celebrations this season?

Photos by Pritam Chhetri

 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, is a joy because, even though she’s an oddball, there’s something about 30-year-old Eleanor that makes you relate to her and instantly like her. Honey­man’s writing style is witty and it’s a delight to get to know Eleanor through her narration as she comes alive in the pages. No wonder while Honeyman was writing Eleanor Oli­phant is Completely Fine, it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize as a work in progress. It later won the 2018 Costa Debut Novel Award.

In the book, you will meet Elea­nor, a clerk at a graphic design office, whose existence is orderly even though completely devoid of good relationships. She works all week long and on Friday nights buys herself two bottles of cheap vodka to last her the weekend and eats pizza for dinner and doesn’t speak to anybody till Monday comes around. All this is fine with her. Her job doesn’t remotely interest her but that doesn’t matter so long it pays the bills. Her existence is unre­markable. But Eleanor also feels there’s nothing remarkable about her either, especially not when you factor in the scars that make up more than half her face.

Then Eleanor develops an obsessive teenage-style crush on a handsome and arrogant singer of a band, and she finally buys herself a mobile phone and laptop, and even opens an account on Twitter to follow and keep track of his where­abouts. She also feels the need to kind of reinvent herself if she is to grab his attention.

Also, one day, she and her col­league, Raymond, witness an old man collapse in the street. They help him and in the process Elea­nor, unwittingly, ends up forging ties with him and his entire fam­ily. There’s also the matter of her disturbing relationship with her mother whose only contact with Eleanor seems to be through once-a-week phone calls. It is all these interconnected events, and seem­ingly harmless situations, that force Eleanor to reexamine her life.

Eleanor’s experiences as a woman not used to the world yet attempting to navigate it are poignant. They teach you a thing or two about the need to understand yourself bet­ter and come to terms with your faults and cracks, and to move on. Eleanor’s voice is sharp and it cuts through the hogwash that we, as human beings, are capable of tell­ing ourselves in order to overlook our weaknesses. She will, at times, feel like a much-needed inner voice reminding you that you can turn your life around by making the right choices, no matter how difficult those choices might be.