Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

I loved this story of older women breaking their societal rules on how women should behave.   I especially loved how they treated the young 22-year-old writing teacher who thought she knew much more than them. These ladies exposed her youthful assumption that she was superior to them.  This is something I have to deal with myself on my job. I don't know why the young assume they know more than the old, but they do. This aspect of the story was funny.

The story opens with Nikki accepting a job teaching women how to write at the Sikh Community Center located in London's Southall neighborhood.  When the women, primarily widows, refuse to learn the alphabet they begin to tell stories about meeting men. These stories have an erotic sense to them. The women tell their fantasies about preludes to sexual encounters with strangers.  Nikki is totally shocked that senior women have these kind of thoughts. The women initially believe that Nikki cannot help them write their stories because she has never been married.  Nikki fears that she will be fired if her supervisor find out what is happening in class and wants to make them learn to write.  However, the women are not interested in the a, b, c's but rather storytelling.  Needing the paycheck, Nikki agrees to help them and hopes to compile enough stories to publish in an anthology.

Part of the fun reading this book is being introduced to many interesting older Punjabi women characters. While they all live traditional Indian lives, their imaginations run wild. In addition, the reader gets to know their life stories both in England as well as in India. Indian customs are prominent in the book, including the customs of Nikki's own family, and how these customs affect their daily lives.  You feel like you are at afternoon tea with these ladies while they gossip and tantalize each other with their fantasies.  The widows stretch themselves by continuing to meet even though the community would react strongly against them writing sexy stories. Later in the novel they stretch themselves again by agreeing to have class in the pub where Nikki also works. Punjabi women are not supposed to drink, let alone sit in a pub.

The erotic stories were not too sexy until the midway point in the novel when the action becomes more explicit.  I guess I am prudish enough that I had to skip over a few pages here and there.  The women's lives were compelling enough to keep me reading.  I wanted to discover what happened with Nikki's relationship with her boyfriend as well as her sister's efforts to obtain an arranged marriage.  There is also a mystery playing out in the plot. Did a woman from Southall really kill herself or did someone kill her. 

This was an enjoyable read.  4 out of 5 stars.