Mango Cheeks Metal Teeth (Novel About Kerala)

It is a different times Srident rules the box office and Kapil Dev is yet to retire. Geetha, eleventh, is off for the annula family vacation in Kerala and is looking forward to all fun with her cousins – sleeping till nine and bathing at any time she chooses, visits to the beach and trips to the market to buy glass bangles and kites and shuttlecocks, lazy afternoons under the shade of the mango, tree in the garden and evenings in the veranda listening to her grandfather's ridiculous ghost stories which he swears are all true, marathan card games and ferocious boys –versus girls battles with the bristles of brooms made ferocious boys, versus –girls battles with the bristes of broom made from cocunut fibre, which induce a pain so intense that tears spring to the eyes unbidden...

But as the summer unfolds, Geetha finds herself spending more time instead at the back of the house with the free –spirited cook, the hypochondriac cleaner, the virile gardener, a check helper girl...

...And Babu, son of Koovait Kannan, the bumbling plumber who good. Babu's family is immersed in the wedding preparations for Babu's sister, who is marrying the most elgible bachelor in neighbourhood: Constable Venu, an expert thrasher of suspects and son of that wealthy black –marketer of supplies, Ration Raaman. But babu's mind is otherwise occupied... with thoughts of a face as rounded as Malgava mango hanging from a tree, of an oiled plait as thich as the ropes used to tie the fishing boats, of eyes that sparkle like the sea on a sunlit morn...

As Geetha and Babu's closely linked but widely divergent lives intersect, both are about to lose some of the blissful ignorance and innocence of childhood.

Charmingly quirkly and often laugh –out –loud hilarious, Mango Cheeks, Metal Teeth, is a played coming –of –age story that gently explores the theme of growing up, loss of innocence and the intimate yet aloof nature of upstairs –downstairs relationships.