Psychoraag
ABOUT
THE BOOK
It’s midnight in Glasgow as DJ Zaf presents Radio Chandni’s last ever programme. The playlist features songs from the soundtracks of romantic old Indian films, Beatles’ and Stranglers’ classics and the music of Kula Shaker and ADF.
As his broadcast goes out, Zaf’s thoughts and memories unfold – a battered black Ford Popular car toiling its way from Lahore to Britain; a shiny blue Kawasaki motorbike flashing through the Scottish countryside; an ex-lover who blames him for all the crap in her life; a fuck-off-we’re-finished note from his white girlfriend; a mother who abandons all that’s safe and familiar to be with the man she loves; a father who doesn’t recognise his son; the once-exotic sight of a sari swishing along the cold wet streets of Govan; a culture defined by something as banal as plastic hankie-box holders decorated with roses; a copper mirror in a singing cave . . .
Suhayl Saadi triumphantly blends standard English with a distinctive urban Scots peppered with Urdu. It’s a mythic yet utterly modern tale that explores what it means to be Asian in Britain in the twenty-first century. A unique experience for those in search of something different.