No Worries Have A Curry

'Kidah Freshie' how are you?
Good book. Surprised that you wrote the book at last..
I guess i should have taken u more seriously when you talked about it before.Omg 10 years is a long time. Can't help thinking if one of your characters was based on me.selfish,arrogant.....as you knew me back then. :D
No worries have a curry, or is it eating dhaal and rice for hangover cure!!! :) i have also read your blog and its brilliant very well written haven't changed at all jots, just a bit older now :P
Sorry about before on Fb hope we can work something out.
Thanks for taking me to india. i given your book six stars. xxx

An enjoyable first three chapters - however I felt that the first (always the most important!) read like a first draft. It needs cutting and polishing to add pace. Five main characters would work better in a film (The Magnificent Seven etc) - despite your brilliant depictions, there may be too many women for the reader to remember each one clearly. Cutting out the weaker humour in Ch 3 would, I feel, reinforce what remained.

To great effect you impart the colour, vigour and shocks one associates with India. Have you read The God of Small Things?

I intend to read all your story. It's on my shelf.

Camac Johnson
(Untouchable)

No worries have a curry

These are just my thoughts as I read through your work...Please use, enjoy, or disregard as you wish, mine is just another opinion in a sea of plenty...This has been on my watch list for a while, glad I can finally get to read it.

Cover & Title – Go together and the title makes me smile since its something one of my friends says quite a lot.

Short Pitch – Good and v interesting

Long Pitch – Nice, gives just enough plot to entice us in and the fact that this is about 5 women escapees makes it extremely original.

This is a well written original piece. I really enjoyed the couple of chapter that i’ve read so far. The crimes of these women would be nothing but a statistic in the Western World yet they are prisoners in their own. That in it’s self stood out to me at the start, just how different the two worlds are. It’s a testament to the writing that I am already thinking about this within a matter of paragraphs.

I love the way they escape, it’s so simple but coming from the angle of the women, it fits perfectly.

There is a freedom in the way you write that’s refreshing. Nothing stands out as being out of place, this is a well polished piece that should do really well.

For now ive given this some stars and will keep it on my W/l to read more

Dear Jyoti Thanjal

I was first drawn to read by your beautiful cover, and by the title of your book, "No Worries Have a Curry".

I have read three chapters and notice that your writing becomes more involving for me as I have finished the story of Baksho. I love these stories, or ordinary women used by a system in which their feelings and choices are overlooked and ignored, with tragic results.

Your writing is straightforward and involving. Beautifully textured and quiet, somehow. That allows the women themselves to come to the fore and tell their stories. It is not all tragic. In the midst of their lives, there is a lively, often very funny interplay among the girls, full of wit and humour, reminding us of their ordinariness. They are just as we are and have the same thoughts, ideas and hopes.

Thank you for writing this and posting it on Authonomy. I hope it does very well.

Fran Macilvey, "Trapped" :-)) xx

First of all, the title is wonderful. I am happy already. The basic idea is sheer delight, and what a pleasure to say that after only two sentences of your pitch. I think you can use that precious pitch space to give us just a simple first impression of each of these women, and what an assortment and range they are. Two colourful words for each of them would utterly clinch it for me. You have that space - I’d use it. It would paint a poster in my mind – of the play, and the film, which I wish this could be.


(e.g. Gulab the slob, Bilo the bitch, Pretti the brains and the princess, angry Jags, and finally Baksho, who burnt her mother-in-law!)

Soon into your first chapter, I am enjoying thoroughly the dramatic style, which is very visual and very assured. It reads like it can easily become a script. There are also loads of tasty and sexy ingredients here, for a script or a play too.

I think once your blurb promised me they’d break out of prison and go on a million adventures, I wanted that to happen as soon as possible, so I confess there was a bit that I rushed through, feeling it dragged. It’s a hoot, a lark, I want them to get on with it. basic comedy structure, I think.

Once I see you’ve got manic panic and people tied to chairs with rope, now I’m away with you on a comedy caper level. Excellent.

Then once they are driving for their lives, in that second to last paragraph, I think I’d convert that to dialogue / dramatisation. I want to hear their new leader and co-pilot discuss the options, while the others follow their lead. You could really show those first critical group dynamics by dramatising rather than narrating that bit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I am already committed to reading as many first chapters on this website as I can. In this case I really want to read the whole thing, or indeed anything this author has done.

I will back this and wish you lots of luck, and will follow your progress which I hope is good.

Best wishes from
Eileen Kardos - The Noodle Trail

PS this might be stupid to ask, but do you know Ash Kotak? We went to London Film School in the 1990s. just a long shot.

I read through the first two chapters and I think you have a great begging to your book. Your dialogue is smooth and natural, and the narratives are tight. You have a fantastic gift for description and you write it beautifully but my one suggestion might be to condense the sections of description a bit. Your descriptions paint a beautiful picture, but at times I found myself wanting to get back to the meat of the story itself. This is just my opinion, feel free to disregard if you disagree. Thanks so much for the read, I will definitely give this one high stars. Good Luck.

The title grabbed my attention and the long pitch intrigued me.

I like the way you start with how the women appear to the guards and introduce them via their police records. As a reader I'm torn between sympathy for the women in these conditions and wondering if they deserve to be in prison for the crimes. Switching to revealing some of the true horror of the women's lives in chapter two gives so much more insight into their background and what's lead to their incarceration. Their get away and then the meeting in the jungle all add new elements and characters with lots of potential for action, twists and turns.

Sherlock Singh made me laugh.

Looks like this is shaping up as a real Indian chick romp! What a lot of fun. Will Bollywood pick it up?!

Of course, I love everything Indian, and my own book is set in Rishikesh.

Just a stylistic note: beware overdoing 'adjective adjective noun,' as in just the first paragraph:
pale blue chiffon scarf
soft brown skin
pinkish orange glow
dry dusty land
rough metal fencing

I'm putting this on my watch list and I'll be back for more. Good luck with it!
Carolyn Brown Heinz - Mage at Midnight

Wow I am only a few chapters into this book and I can almost feel the published book in my hands. I'm reading from mobile as I'm unable to go online from a computer but I will be backing this book as soon as I can, a gripping read! Goosey

The story starts with Ramnath, and new recruit Gangudin. Ramnath describes the women in turn.

Gulab is a promiscuous runaway imprisoned for non-payment of rent to Mr Pingal.
Preeti is a runaway who stole a police car for joyriding.
Bilo fled her wedding and vandalized cars.
Jags (Jagero) is unstable, and attacked her husband, Sandip.
Baksho set her mother-in-law on fire.

But the women break out of Jalandhar Central Jail, and head south to Delhi.

Ch2 Baksho, is her 1st person account of “Jagjit’s clan”, and how the mother-in-law grabbed the petrol, and insulted Baksho’s father. Baksho pleaded guilty because no one wanted to listen, and she has no one to fight for now her father has turned his back on her.

In Ch3, Baksho, (who I now know a lot more about) drives the stolen police van.

Gulab sees an owl and they follow it. They stop in a forest, wash, and they have guns. Remembering they have guns made me encouraged at that point, that things were more equal, and that there's a reason to keep going. My sympathy is all with them.

Well done little sis great to see your book officially, loved the ending, india is one country I love to see as its so rich with culture you did very well to capture that in your book, you feel as if you there, well done, great read.
luv u x
6 stars from me

india has become the latest hotspot for book settings. perhaps because for the western world it is so different. this is an enjoyable read. very skillfully laid out and written.
j
what every woman should know

No worries have a curry, I love your title I've watchlisted your work to enjoy later on with my feet up and a glass of wine (after a curry). Looking forward to it.
regards
Sheila

love the description of the punjab feel as if am there. enjoying it so far.

this is a good read. a lovely cultural background to start with, and told very well. Narrative and dialogue marry together with skill...very well done...
l shall back...
six stars******
read SEASONS...

A good read so far, maybe some tightening up in places but hey, were all on here for the same reason! I like the dialect you use, it's what makes it fun! Starred and looking forward to reading more once I've caught up with my reading! :-)

I hope you had as much fun writing this book as I had reading it. I'm guessing that English isn't your first language? Apologies if I'm wrong, but I loved the way you use words.

I think you need to go over the last chapters for a few things - you have written 'riffle' every time you meant 'rifle', for example. I think you have relied a bit too much on spellcheck - some of the words don't always make sense.

A really enjoyable read, and I wish you all the best with this book.

A very entertaining book. You did a very good job writing this book. Highly starred!
Thanks,
Scott Trimas
The Chimera Factor

This is highly entertaining reading. The story feels fresh and the characters interesting. If you are open to constructive criticism, I'd go over your punctuation carefully, as there are many run on sentences that could be easily remedied -- just break them into two or three, using periods instead of commas. Sometimes sentences end with no periods. These are very simple things that I think would add some polish to a fine tale. But the most important part -- the story itself -- is cheeky and fun. I wish you luck!

I love this novel.

I was drawn in by the first chapter. I had some trouble connecting with Jags due to her violent/sadistic behavior but, the fast pace kept me interested. The second chapter brought the narrative to a screeching halt and left me flat. Each girl's back story is important but would work better if revealed gradually through the course of the story without killing the momentum. Perhaps this could be done from the perspectives of various witnesses, victims, or family members, revealing that the girls aren't the hardened criminals they're perceived to be. Perhaps we are presented that information later in the book but, I had trouble getting past the second chapter.

Hi, Let's go green with a backing. Time this spent a moment or two on my shelf, Jotters. Best wishes - Ian

I read chapter 1, and then I thought of loads to write and didn’t get onto chapter 2. It’s well worth it. The imprisoned women are shown to play on the weakness of the drunk Ramnath brilliantly. There’s an alarming shift in point-of-view from the guard to the prisoners, and some surprising English colloquialisms in the dialogue, but somehow it all works.

Meera Syal is one of my favourite writers, and I can see the influence. On the other hand, there’s a nagging sense that it’s obviously a moral tale, not that there’s anything wrong with moral tales, it just seemed that the morality overrode the way the women beguile Ramnath which is very strong and extraordinary.

I was surprised that the break-out happened at all. There was no promise of any real action in an opening where a 9 year old stares into space. I was so uninspired that I missed that it was her mother’s story. But I stuck with it once the hapless Ramnath started to describe the women's crimes to freshman Gangudin so lovingly with such delight and with such repulsion over a bottle of Desi daru. So whatever you did it worked. A bit like the trick Gulab pulls on Ramnath. What is that all about? Does Gulab have something on Ramnath from her past “intimate relations”? Very good. Well done. On my WL.

I admit I read this out of curiosity. Very interesting.

Would make a great TV series or film! Very visual and entertaining.

An original story with realistic characterisation. This work is beautifully wrtten with evocative description. A real page turner which I would definitely buy. Six stars and on my shelf. Good luck with this book. Yours Bea

You've created some interesting characters alright! I thought the files on the girls were very thorough, detailing even personality traits. The only one I wasn't sympathetic to was Jag, she seems quite a nasty girl with a lot of anger issues. It's a little disjointed in places but nothing major.
It's kind of like a Thelma and Louise only with Indian culture! Beautifully descriptive. Great pitch. I will read more when I can but in the meantime, I have given it 5 stars.
Tammy Robinson