Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories
    Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories
    Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories
    Ebook87 pages2 hours

    Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories

    By Warren Brown

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    These short stories are based in "Anglo-Street", which represents an Anglo-Indian neighbourhood, a fictional area in Calcutta. The places, characters and events of the short stories are all existing, living and occurring in the period of the "Golden Age of Anglo-Indians" in Calcutta, between the 1960s to the 1990s.


    The author has attempted to recreate a place in the fictional neighbourhood of "Anglo-Street" where all Anglo-Indians and those interested in the colourful tapestry of this mixed-race community would feel at home.


    Welcome to Anglo-Street, your very own Anglo-Indian neighbourhood in Calcutta.Meet the residents, learn about their lives and experience life in a place now forgotten in the corridors of time.This book is part of the latest collection of Anglo-Indian short stories published by Warren Brown.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWarren Brown
    Release dateOct 16, 2018
    ISBN1326889192
    Neighbourhood: A Collection of Three Anglo-Indian Short Stories
    Author

    Warren Brown

    Warren Brown is an Author who has written in several genres from fiction to non-fiction. Warren is a certified Life Coach and Hypnotherapist. Warren completed his Advertising and Copywriting training through American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI).  I have been an Indie publisher for over eleven years now. I have been writing and publishing on the web since 1993. Website: https://warren4.wixsite.com/warren Medium: https://warrenauthor.medium.com/ Substack: https://warrenbrown.substack.com/

    Read more from Warren Brown

    Related to Neighbourhood

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Heirs Now Apparent

      Sep 15, 2023

      Heirs Now Apparent
      2 min read

    • Article

      Fight To The Finish

      May 6, 2023

      Fight To The Finish
      4 min read

    • Article

      Editor-in-chief

      Aug 21, 2021

      On August 15, 2022, India celebrates 75 eventful years of being the world’s largest democracy. There is much to be grateful for. At Independence, we were an impoverished, underdeveloped nation, where just over 18 per cent of the people could read or

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Bookshelf

      Apr 15, 2023

      PP Raveendran The book presents a critique of modernity within Indian literature of the last two centuries. It looks at the aftermath of colonialism, print capitalism, translation, realism and ideas surrounding the region and the nation, as well as f

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why The Mayhem In Manipur

      May 13, 2023

      Why The Mayhem In Manipur
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Clue Is In The Couplet

      Mar 13, 2021

      The Clue Is In The Couplet
      2 min read

    • Article

      Hooray For BOLLYWOOD

      Nov 1, 2023

      Hooray For BOLLYWOOD
      3 min read

    • Article

      Softly DOES IT

      Nov 21, 2022

      Softly DOES IT
      2 min read

    • Article

      House of Gems

      Sep 6, 2022

      House of Gems
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ariadne’s Thread

      Oct 18, 2023

      Ariadne’s Thread
      6 min read

    • Article

      We Are Here

      Apr 29, 2019

      We Are Here
      16 min read

    • Article

      Diamonds

      Jun 4, 2018

      Diamonds
      9 min read

    • Article

      Pickled

      Jul 27, 2021

      Pickled
      15 min read

    • Article

      Doug's DIARY

      Dec 15, 2023

      November is drawing to a close in a typically soggy and windy manner. Last night, strong gusts stripped the lane-side trees of most of their beautiful autumn leaves, reducing the deciduous elements of the countryside to bony-fingered branches. And th

      6 min read

    • Article

      THE BOY WHO KEPT Bees

      Oct 6, 2021

      All you could hear was rain, rain, rain. Rain drumming on the slate roof, streaming down the kitchen window, saturating the meadows and the dark woods beyond. Jess waited until her dad had turned away to check his phone, then dropped her half-eaten s

      8 min read

    • Article

      HOME To Roost

      Mar 5, 2024

      HOME To Roost
      11 min read

    • Article

      Fabric of Life

      Jan 28, 2022

      Fabric of Life
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Christmas Memory

      Nov 1, 2018

      A Christmas Memory
      18 min read

    • Article

      Home to ROOST

      Jan 11, 2022

      Home to ROOST
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Traveler

      Oct 1, 2020

      The Traveler
      7 min read

    • Article

      Damson JAM

      Jan 17, 2024

      Damson JAM
      10 min read

    • Article

      My Life As A Bookseller

      Jul 30, 2018

      Last week I spent an hour in a house in Glasgow with an elderly woman who had decided to sell her husband’s books. It’s a two hour drive each way, so a considerable investment in time, particularly on a warm summer’s day. This is how I spend much of

      4 min read

    • Article

      Welcome To The Slowveld

      Jun 1, 2020

      Welcome To The Slowveld
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Gold-spinners

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Gold-spinners
      5 min read

    • Article

      Family Tradition

      May 3, 2023

      Family Tradition
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Ruins

      Aug 5, 2021

      The Ruins
      6 min read

    • Article

      Boutique Christmas

      Nov 5, 2019

      Boutique Christmas
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Neighbourhood

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Neighbourhood - Warren Brown

      time.

      EPISODE 1: SECRET PICTURE

      The Anglo Bookshop at Royd Street was open for business as usual.

      The radio was on in the shop and Rock Me Baby by B.B. King was being played by the All-India Radio Station.

      The afternoon music show of the latest English pop songs was a favourite among the Anglo-Indians of the community in Calcutta as was the evening English music programmes.

      Aunty Agnes, as the readers of the bookstore like to call her was at the cash counter attending to her customers. Agnes was in her early forties, slender, of average height and attractive features. Her daughter Janet was arranging the books in the shop display. Janet was a teenager and she would help her mother out after school before going off to the home of her tuition teacher Mrs. Rebello, who lived up the street near the Post Office.

      The Anglo Bookshop was in the city of Calcutta since 1890 and it was now an icon for the Anglo-Indian community living in the city of Calcutta. It was started by Agnes’s Grandfather Harry Westerbrook, when he came to Calcutta from Britain. Harry was always interested in travelling to India as a youngster. It was only when he was seventeen that he told his father that he would be leaving on the next ship to Calcutta to make some money and get away from his boring life on the farm in Dorset.

      There was a ship bound for India and it was going via Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to deliver commodities and to bring back silk and spices to England. Harry Westerbrook a young man of sixteen left his family, his widowed father and six brothers to make his way to the land of adventure, that distant land of India which he had read so much about. He was excited and could not wait to see the lions, tigers, elephants and forests of India.

      However, all that changed once he came to Calcutta. Harry met and fell madly in love with Brenda D’Silva, they married and had two children Richard and Harriet. When Harriet grew up she got married to Cedric Rowan and they had a daughter, who they named Agnes.

      Janet, have you put the latest books out on display? asked Agnes.

      Yes, Ma, I have put out all the books in the shop window, said Janet.

      I hope you didn’t display all the copies of the latest Sherlock Holmes book?

      No, I kept just one copy out on display, said Janet.

      Good, we don’t want all the copies to get spoiled in the strong sunshine, especially now that summer has arrived and temperatures are soaring.

      The old wooden door to the shop opens and an overweight elderly lady walks in with a number of plastic bags and an umbrella in hand.

      The woman looks flustered and she seems to be feeling very warm and uncomfortable after her travel in the heat outside.

      Elvis was singing Girls! Girls! Girls!, on the radio in his rich velvet voice.

      Mrs. Jonas come in, come in and sit down, says Agnes, pulling up a brown polished wooden chair next to her counter.

      Agnes switches on the small table fan next to her and increases the speed of the ceiling fan on her regulator on the wall.

      Thank you Agnes, says the old lady Jonas, placing all her plastic bags on the floor near the counter, looking relieved and exhausted after her walk in the heat.

      It’s very warm outside dear, Janet can you get Mrs. Jonas a glass of fruit juice please and tell the boy to put some ice cubes?

      Yes, Ma, I’ll get the juice from the kitchen, says Janet rushing to the back of the shop where there was a small pantry for the servant to prepare tea and coffee. A young boy called Bunty would work and stay with the family for the last two years now.

      Agnes, I won’t have any ice in my drink, I don’t want to catch a cold and cough again, the last one lasted for four months, says Mrs. Jonas.

      Janet, tell Bunty not to put any ice in the drink, did you hear me, no ice in the drink for Mrs. Jonas? screams Agnes at the top of her voice.

      I heard you Ma, says Janet as she walks back from the kitchen dressed in a green salwar kameez  outfit, which she picked up from Hogg Market a month ago for the school concert today.

      Bunty the ten year old who did work in the shop and who was now adopted by the family comes rushing behind Janet, with a glass of lemonade in his hand. Bunty was dark complexioned and he wore an old grey vest, blue shorts and was bare feet.

      Thank you my child, says the old Mrs Jonas as she takes the cold glass of lemonade and gulps it down.

      There are ice cubes in the lemonade, said Mrs Jonas, now I’m sure to fall sick, as she struggles to start coughing.

      "Janet I told you to tell this chokra  to make the juice without the ice?"

      "I did, I can’t help it if he doesn’t pay attention and wants to run out to play with all the bustee  children."

      "Come here, Bunty, now go and make Mrs. Jonas lemonade without the ice and you better wear those chappals  which Sahib bought for you from the bazaar  yesterday," said Agnes as she stretched her hand and twisted the ear of the ten year old for disobeying her orders.

      "No, I don’t want any more juice, thank you my dear. I’ll just pick up the latest copies of Sidney Sheldon

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1