Londonstani

"The first time I read this, the audience began to bottle me because I said 'p*ki so many times... so this is a warning to let you know that I will say p*ki in this reading... a lot..."

Gautam Malkani
March 2007
Neigbourhood, Notting Hill Gate



Gautam's novel of the misdemeanors of British Asian youth tells the tale of the protagonist Jas and his ascension into rudeboy-hood in the west London suburbs of Hounslow. Written in a street-slang/txt talk/hinglish* hybrid portraying tame family boys at home turning into streetwise gangsta 'desi's' with a penchant for boasting their sexual prowess, stealing phones and over-projecting their masculinity with the lingering stenches of 'family-related shit'.

*Hinglish- a term used to describe a colloquial use of spoken word of Indian origin in English sentences. ie: She's being really 'okhi' about it. (okhi- difficult/awkward)

'Pakis. Rajamuffins. Britasians. Rudeboys. Desis. Whatever we are, the other guys are better at being it than I am. I swear I got the same fones that they got but I still look like a gimp.'

Meet Jas, 19. Obsessed with designer clothes, sculpted facial hair, protein shakes and pretending he lives in the ghetto rather than his overbearing mum's five bedroom house in Hounslow. No matter how much Jas tries, though, it isn't enough to sleep with the seriously fit Samira or convince hard-man Hardjit. Then Sanjay - a proper player with a Knightsbridge penthouse and a Porsche - offers him a deal he can't resist. But will Jas be man enough to pay the price for his borrowed bad-boy image...

'GRIPPING STUFF... BOTH DISTURBING AND COMPELLING. MALKANI SKILFULLY HIGHLIGHTS THE INTERSECTION OF MACHISMO AND CONSUMERISM' The Gaurdian

WATCH GAUTAM'S COMMENT broadband
WATCH GAUTAM'S COMMENT dial-up

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