Click Here to read a story

The Airport Run and other stories

This collection of short stories explores the multifaceted lives of young British Asians as they navigate the cultural crossroads between the UK and the Indian Subcontinent. Each narrative delves into the tensions and harmonies that arise from straddling two worlds, where inherited traditions meet modern identity, and where the pull of ancestral roots often clashes with the realities of contemporary life. Through intimate, character-driven storytelling, the collection sheds light on questions of belonging, generational conflict, and the quiet negotiations of identity that take place within families, friendships, and within the self.

Each narrative is infused with a sense of humour and levity, offering moments of warmth, absurdity, and relatability, they also peel back the layers of what it means to grow into oneself. Comic capers such as The Airport Run, nostalgic and warm tales such as The Ambassador and The Tree and then there are tales of morality like The House, The Teacher and playing truant. It is a portrait of hybridity of what it means to carry history while carving out a future in an ever-shifting cultural landscape.

Young adulthood is a time marked by self-discovery, uncertainty, and fleeting clarity. Each story follows characters who are learning to navigate the emotional and social complexity of becoming, often caught between the desire for freedom and the pull of responsibility. While the narratives are infused with a sense of humour and levity, offering moments of warmth, absurdity, and relatability, they also peel back the layers of what it means to grow into oneself.

Beneath the playful tone lies an exploration of deeper, often unspoken themes: the longing for connection, the fragility of identity, and the search for meaning in a world that rarely offers easy answers. These stories do not aim to resolve life's questions, but to sit with them capturing the small, quiet moments that shape who we become.

Amateurs

Set in the heart of the Black Country, Amateurs is a vibrant collection of offbeat short stories that follows the escapades of two British Asian neighbours; one second-generation, the other third, they form an unlikely but enduring friendship. Though mismatched in temperament, personality, habits, and outlook, they are both delightfully odd, endearingly quirky, and united by a shared curiosity about the world around them.

They form a curious alliance built on shared heritage, playful humour, and a knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.

Quirky, awkward, and endearingly persistent, the duo unexpectedly stumble into the world of amateur sleuthing, into peculiar mysteries, strange happenings, and local secrets hidden in plain sight within their tight-knit, working-class community. Lacking any formal investigative skills and no background in detective work, armed with their nosiness, and relentless determination, and a dash of good-humoured meddling, with a stubborn refusal to mind their own business, they begin unravelling strange happenings and quiet mysteries that simmer beneath the surface of their working-class, multicultural community. What begins as harmless fun soon spirals into a series of amateur sleuthing adventures that they navigate with wit, heart, and a lot of improvisation. Along the way, they confront not just clues and suspects, but questions of identity, belonging, and the quiet, complex dynamics of modern British life.

From suspicious disappearances to neighbourhood rumours gone wild, each story blends dry wit with genuine heart, as the pair navigate not only their investigations but also questions of identity, belonging, and what it means to truly know the people around you. Part comedy, part mystery, Amateurs is a warm, sharply observed portrait of friendship and everyday intrigue in a world where everyone has a story.

Blending humour, warmth, and a touch of mystery, Amateurs is a celebration of friendship, everyday heroics, and the rich tapestry of life in a multicultural corner of the Midlands, where even the most unassuming residents might be hiding a secret worth uncovering.