Book of the month

Chopped Green Chillies in Vanilla Ice Cream, a novel by Sam Mukherjee
Review by Victor Kalyan Ghoshe
This review was published in the July, 2011 issue of
www.southasianoutlook.com


Chinmoy Bose, a slightly overweight adolescent is uprooted from his beloved humble neighbourhood in Kolkata when his parents land upon an unexpected win at a lottery. Childhood friends are distanced and school ceases to be vernacular. The despondent teenager arrives at the uppity Vanilla Apartments where he meets the best friends of his life and acquires the nickname, Tiger. He savors every single day of his newfound existence with four spirited boys, Kirit, Robin, Signal and Pluto. Vanilla Apartments is a multistoried behemoth of white cement that resembles a massive block of vanilla ice cream. It houses misfits and wannabes and islands and archipelagos. Quidnuncs and vamps complete the equation. Their spicy lives are like chopped green chillies in vanilla ice cream and there is never a dull day in the high-rise. Tigers journey with his friends is full of admiration as well as controversies. He nurtures the dream of going to America one day. Will a surprising betrayal short-circuit his lifes ambition or can he emerge victorious from the set back?


Sam Mukherjee's novel is nothing less than the ever popular Indian snack ‘Kolkata's Jhalmuri'. Truly, this is such an easy read that one can smoothly travel down to the city of Calcutta in the 80s, loiter around and come back to 2011 with lots of delicious fragrances from the past.
The most important offering of the novel is the series of interesting social scenarios portrayed by Mukherjee. Through the lives of Tiger and his friends, Mukherjee picks up and presents insightful snapshots of different classes of society and their interactions. The author’s charming and free flowing language and descriptive style keeps the book continuously colorful, and he manages to paint a beautiful 'Big Picture’ with the help of many small colourful ones between the front and back covers of ‘Chopped Green Chilies in Vanilla Ice-cream.’ In short, a delicious read.

to buy the book Visit:
http://www.coinjoos.com/books/Chopped-Green-Chillies-In-Vanilla-Ice-Cream-by-Sam-Mukherjee-book-8129117916

Victor Kalyan Ghoshe is a young Indian writer.
An international communication adviser by profession and a musician by heart, Victor is an explorer and an award winning Communication designer, whose mission is to rediscover and document the tribal and folk cultures of this world.