Books: “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows,” by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Nikki, a twenty-something modern woman, is seeking her way in life, wanting to be active in the feminist movement, but not knowing how to go about it. She stumbles upon a teaching job at the gurdwara in the Sikh community of Southall England, where she is hired to teach Punjabi widows how to write. Instead, the women start sharing their erotically charged fantasies.

While I found the novel’s attempt to balance humour and criminal violence jarring, it also forced a realization. The humour comes from asking the unexpected: to view widows (the word already conjures up ‘middle-age’ and ‘devout’), especially Punjabi widows who were brought up under conservative households, as sexually charged. Yet it is precisely this ‘check’ on female virtue, by both male and female members of a community, that gives power and rise to honour killings and beatings. Therefore prejudice of sex – this fixated idea of what is ‘a sexual being’, is both funny and dangerous; they are two sides of the same antiquated coin, but while comedy points out our biased conceptions with a punch line, violence delivers the punch physically.

There is a lot going on – from making up with mothers, daughters, sisters and boyfriends, to solving a murder mystery. But much like a generous lover, Jaswal spends plenty of time bringing each layer of the narrative to closure, leaving the reader quite satisfied.

“‘A banana is ideal,’ Preetam said. ‘Nice size and shape.’

‘How ripe?’ Arvinder askd. ‘Too ripe and it would be like my first experience – a pile of mush.’

‘Why are you using vegetable and fruit names?’ Nikki interrupted. These conversations were starting to put her off going to the supermarket.

‘We don’t always,’ Manjeet said. ‘Sometimes we say danda.” The Punjabi word for stick. ‘Nobody talks about these things. All of our knowledge and language was passed down from our parents. They certainly didn’t discuss what men and women did together.’”