Reviews

Sangeetha has the talent of not just narrating a story but sketching it out for you. While you are reading you can still see the characters as if watching a film and that is really fascinating. Her command over the language is so good and yet so simple and easy to understand. The intimate glimpses into other people's lives, totally satisfies and intrigues you.

Honey Irani, Award-winning Bollywood Screenwriter

What I love most about Sangeetha's work is the lyrical quality of her prose. It conjures up beautiful /images of Coonoor, with lush green tea plantations, abundant flora and fauna, beautifully kept houses and gardens, its people and the lives they lead. She has an innate talent for capturing human emotion on paper - a touch of humour, a hint of pathos, a slice of laughter and a tinge of sadness - emotions that transcend geographical boundaries and reach out to readers from all walks of life. It's not what Sangeetha says; it's how she says it that sets her a class apart from everyone else. In this book, the simplest of stories are transformed into magical, riveting and fascinating tales, a must-read for all!

Neeti Jaychander, Features Editor, Femina

The Nilgiri Hills of South India and its people are brought evocatively to life, with delicate storytelling brushstrokes and an inner life of characters that comes to surface; it is evident it must be from a writer who has lived there and acutely observed all around her.

Anjan Saha, Director, London Literature Lounge

The characters she has created in her engrossing stories are ordinary ones but are capable to spring surprises even for those who are familiar with Indian culture and life. Some of her stories tell about the mindset, dilemma, ambition, culture, greed and hate of the small Anglo-Indian community still living in and around this beautiful part of the world. Sangeetha writes passionately and poignantly bringing to our mind's eye the mien and milieu of The Nilgiris. Her stories though rooted locally have an endearing and everlasting universal appeal. Her style is lucid and her characterization authentic creating verisimilitude effortlessly. Her stories, written in simple and clear prose, are infinitely moving and beautifully shaped. Her depiction of the Nilgiris is sure to resonate in the heart of any avid reader the enchanting world of Ruskin Bond's Mussoorie and R.K. Narayan's Malgudi.

PC Thomas, Educator and President of Good Shepherd International School, Nilgiris

This book by Sangeetha Shinde Tee represents the most evocative set of short stories to have been based in the Niligiri Hills of South India. It provides a brilliant exposition of life in this charming Hill Station - that range from the highbrow club-visiting society to the simple people who are compelled to send their young children to work. Not surprisingly, it is the latter who appear to have their hearts in the right places in these stories! It also provides a subtle insight into how the quaint attractions of the Niligiri townships are being replaced by modern attractions and how the sounds of Nature are being substituted by man- altered ones.

Tarun Chhabra, Founder of NGO and Nilgiris resident

Sangeetha writes in elegant prose, mercifully free from verbosity and exaggeration. These stories set in Coonoor deal largely with people from all over India, and some from overseas who have come to live in Coonoor either as visitors or long term residents. As a person living in Ooty I found the references to the beauty and magic of the Nilgiris especially appropriate.

Dr M R Srinivasan, Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission