The Tree, the Well & the Drag Queen

by Salini Vineeth

Dream. A Threat.

A Mumbai-based drag queen must return to their ancestral village to confront an uncanny opponent: A demonic jackfruit tree.

Centuries ago, a man and a woman in search of an elusive treasure fall into the servitude of a dark force that transmogrifies into a gigantic jackfruit Tree.
Generation after generation, their descendants serve the Tree. It’s a vicious cycle of greed and cowardice. And then, a voice of dissent. A descendant defies the gender, familial and social expectations. They manage to break free and build an authentic life, far away from the Tree’s malevolent gaze. But then, they realise that the Tree still holds the reins of their destiny.

Will the drag queen defeat the Tree and break the vicious cycle of servitude? Will they claim absolute freedom?

The Tree, the Well & the Drag Queen blends folklore, myth and magic with a contemporary exploration of gender identity as it follows a queer person’s quest for freedom and authenticity.

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2026

About the author

Salini Vineeth is a fiction writer based out in Bangalore, India. Her latest book is Everyday People - a short story collection. Her previous work, Magic Square has sold over a 1000 copies on Amazon. She is an engineering graduate from BITS Pilani, Goa. She later completed MTech from IIIT-Bangalore. Along with fiction, she writes technical blogs for start-ups. She also takes up freelance writing assignments.
Salini is a history buff and ardent fan of mystery novels. One of her proudest achievements is completing the entire Shelock Holmes works by Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle. She adores Sherlock Holmes.
She also has travelled across India, visiting most of the historical destinations. She also takes a keen interest in ancient Indian architecture and philosophy.

Reviews

[Rahul Vishnoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

-How a Cat & a Drag Queen Slayed a Demon Tree-
Review of 'The Tree, The Well & the Drag Queen' by Salini Vineeth

Quote Alert
"𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝. 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧. 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝. 𝐌𝐚𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐤𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐛 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠
𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝. 𝐀𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥."

You can't really start a review with effusive praise of a book but is there any other way when the book totally won over your heart? And the heart wants what it wants. So here we go: Absolutely marvelous storytelling. Salini Vineeth proves humnas were sent to the earth to tell stories. They were given the grey matter so they could pick up a quill and write some black letters in a white paper. Because imagination is the real god. The only true god. Ok, so I am done with the praise now. Let's move on to the story.

So what's it about?
A Mumbai-based drag queen must return to their ancestral village to confront an uncanny opponent: A demonic jackfruit tree. When a greedy couple asks a god for immeasurable wealth, they get it, but wrapped up in his anger and in the form of a tree that swallows up the land where its plants. For centuries people live a dismal existence. Until Nina comes back home.

The message in Vineeth's story is crystal clear:
WHAT/WHERE EXACTLY IS HOME? If you dont like the people, the place ain't worth living for. Even though stories make a big deal out of home and belonging, Salini Vineeth advocates cutting off roots, shake off the dust on your wings and just take off for a better place.

In the world governed by more and more far-right leaders, the writers keep asserting their thoughts and beliefs through stories. And this one here is one of the most pro-immigration, pro-identity, pro-self, leave-your-home-behind-go-search-a-new-world story. Through the book, the author, asks us where is home. What is home? Is it a place where you want to be? Or is it somewhere you will live without biases and prejudices. Have a look at this take on rusted nostalgia:
"My ancestral home in a remote corner of the farmland, once prosperous, now looked pallid, just like Amma. A layer of white mould had claimed its laterite stone walls. Termites had infested the once sturdy wooden pillars of the veranda, and I feared the roof would cave in at any moment. The hefty teakwood door opened with a loud creak, and I entered the dim living room. Inside, silence stagnated like water in a swamp. Bloated memories foated on it like dead bodies —the exorcist's unintelligible chants, Ammachi's livid mews, and Ammas rough fingertips dabbing coconut oil on my burns
while I lay in a corner of this living room."

The book has roots deeply entrenched into folktales like storytelling. The beginning? Marvelous (am I waxing eloquent again? Can't help it) It reminded me of Meesha by S Hareesh and Tumbaad by Rahi Anil Barve.
Have a look:
"Finally, one day, their shovels clinked against metal. Maaran and Marutha, now two red blobs of soil, jumped up and down in joy. They gently removed the earth, and the golden chest emerged. They tried to break its lock, but in vain. Then they heard a rumbling noise. Red sand rose in a whirlwind inside the well and blurred their vision. When it subsided, a boy, hardly ten years old, ridinga bull, manifested in front of them. His skin was as red as theirs, and his eyes were like pomegranate arils.'

And this one particular para should never be ready if you suffer from claustrophobia. But you can read it if you also are a victim of fantasy and speculative fiction.
"I was trapped inside an enormous jackfruit, buried knee-deep in its gluey sap. Its ripe yellow flesh closed in on me from all sides. Coughing and gasping, I dug my long fingernails into its fesh, trying to tear it apart. The jackfruit started bleeding - sticky, white blood. The sugary meat pressed against my face, and its sickly-sweet smell choked me."

Stories set in a strange world have long been a staple for the fantasy buffs and writers alike. The ravaged earth, the zombies and mutated creatures running amok in a maddening world is a fodder for singular tales. TTTWTDQ introduces a fresh perspective to this sub-genre. The tree that usually provides is the snatcher here. It's an absolute Komolika of the trees. It cajoles and coaxes, threatens and disorientes, begs and lures and even drops little kisses of affection and support. But don't be lured into it's trap for its a bloody Komolika!
Have a look at the tree's vampish traps:
"Like a lotus that blooms from a murky pond, you've risen from the abyss of your weakness. You look tender and flimsy. The fruit is your reward, dripping with nectar, the elixir of eternal happiness. Take it to distant lands and present it to kings and queens. A drop of its nectar shall make them all your slaves."

And here:
"You delusional fool! You think you're a mighty eagle frying high? No. Youre only an ugly moth, kicking and screaming in a glass box."

The cat Ammachi helps the protagonist escape the clutches of demonic trees and his cruel, unrelenting father. At times I was confused if the tree really is the villain here? Or the indifferent mother? Or the father hellbent on turning his son 'straight'?
Have a look:
"Those were the days when Appa started growing suspicious about me. Soon, he was convinced that I was abnormal and was determined to set me'straight. The days and months that followed were torture. A mandala of vibrant colours fashed in front of my eyes. I heard the cracking of a whip in the air, the maddening chants and the exorcist's question:'Will you leave this body?' The whip came down furiously, and blood sprouted on my skin, turning it into a sea of poppies."

And here:
'How was such a wretched animal born into our family? You're a boy. Stop acting like a girl or I'll beat you to a pulp and throw you out of the house!"

Vineeth writes with a tenderness that erupts out of the pages. The prose is simple and rich, evocative but calming. In their review of Arundhati Roy’s smasher ‘The God of Small things’, New York Times states that ‘A novel of real ambition must invest in its own language, and this one did’. And how the author has invested in the language! It’s luxuriant, true to the times the story is set in and seamlessly brings Hindi and English together. The confidence that’s reflected in author's language is something to revel in.
Have a look:
"The more I got to know people around me, the more I realised that everyone was pretending, one way or the other. Maybe that's the only way to survive, by killing a part of yourself and pretending to be someone else."

Pick it up today. What are you waiting for?

[Ratna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delving into Salini Vineeth’s book was like falling headlong into a veritable Carrolesque rabbit hole, one from which I didn't want to return, even when I knew the story was over and I had to come back to boring reality.

I lay amidst the delectable remnants of the finished tale, savouring the emotions and images it evoked, rethinking about the small, lovable boy, his grandmother, his mother, and his father, unwittingly trapped in the world created by someone before them, and wondering how this tale was restricted to just a novella instead of a full-fledged novel, maybe even a trilogy, the trend of the times! My grievance comes a little later.

Salini creates a fabulous fantasy world triggered by a vulnerability that evil finds easiest to prey upon, greed. As the scenes shift and meander through this fantastical world, from the original greedy couple who sell their souls for prosperity and domain control to the later ones inextricably trapped in this world, the unseen-but-lurking-in-every-page-of-the-book evil (beautifully allegorized in the form of suppressed anger), I fell deeper and deeper in love with Salini’s highly evocative writing.

My heart went out to every generation of the cursed family, but most of all to the drag queen who transforms, most agonisingly yet beautifully and sensitively, from a vulnerable little one yearning for love to an intrepid saviour. I loved and savoured this journey of the drag queen.

The biggest problem with the book was that it was meant to be more, much more than a novella. I was disappointed with not having enough details of the multiple generations between the first ones who hit at the root of Evil to release it into the world and the final one that put it back in its place, how the family evolved from finding prosperity suddenly to what had become of it now. That part should have been given more words to be fleshed out well. That absent part left me wanting.

And the Kerala-ness of the story replete with chathans, temple and village guardians, quintals of squishy, mushy, flabby jackfruit (with the power to bury their victims alive), added to the alluring authenticity of the tale.

By the way, I've never been a fan of jackfruit (the smelly fruit, not the raw one), ever. After reading Salini's book, I reiterate my disdain for it. But rest assured, the poor jackfruit is not the villain, only a tool. Read the book if you want to know the real villain.

[Aparna Salvi Salvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books break barriers. I choose fiction to do so for me. Queer literature is something I consciously stayed away from for years. I fail to understand their underlying currents. For some time, I didn't want to. Possibly, it could be a case of a rigid upbringing where something that doesn't fit into a mold is not acceptable.
But this book, the one I'm reviewing, has opened those rusty locks of an old, heavy, forbidding door. I chose to read this book merely because the title caught my attention. The dark yet inviting cover called to me. What could be common in a tree, a well, and a drag queen? Trees in a well, or near a well, or creeping towards the well? Drag queen emerges from the well or pushes herself in?
Weird questions clamored my mind. Drag queen in the title did hold me back, but not for long.

Once into the novella, I hung to the tree, swam through the well, and rooted for the drag queen. There is magic, fantasy, folklore, and amongst all these the yearning to become and identify one's true self. Of all, I loved the folklore. I learned how magic lies in ordinary life. I sympathized with the protagonist. I wonder how the author decided that it should be a novella and not a novel. There must be a thorough thought process because the length of the book feels just right.
It was meant to change mindsets, blend genres to create a fresh experience, and tell a good story without a prejudiced mind.
Goal achieved, I would say.

Books break barriers and create new worlds. I chose fiction to allow me a change, layer by layer, book by book.

[Rohan Bendre · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
First of all, I must appreciate the author for the freshness of their choice of protagonist. Weaving a folksy village tale with gender identity as the central theme is a very refreshing, very contemporarily relevant idea, and the conception of that idea must be appreciated!
My rating is low because the story did not engage me so much, it didn't feel tight and neatly tucked enough. Parts of it felt like an FAQ section of a gender identity manual snuck into a story. The delivery was not smooth enough. Also, the main plot had several meh moments, where a major event just "happens". The placing of weightage felt disoriented, I guess. I am unable to fully put into words what was off, but it just felt a bit amateur-ish.
PS- It feels so rich to call someone's writing "amateur-ish" when I mysef am such a noob xD But that's how pompous a review can be, hazards of the task lol.
I did enjoy the fantastical parts of the story, like the talking Tree and its origin story. Felt like one of those childhood fables, full of possibility!
I absolutely adored all the artwork in this novella, just brilliant.

[Manali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heady mix of folklore and magical realism

My rating: 4.5/5

Based in two settings; one urban and one rustic, this story pulls you in in a manner that makes the book very hard to put down. While the elements are those of magical realism and folklore, the characters, their behaviour, as well as their actions and choices, though symbolic and layered, teach us many a thing about the way we lead our lives, and hold up a mirror questioning us on whether we need to change or not.

[Ashish Rastogi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read. The turmoil of being non-binary is woven into a contemporary fantasy tale centred on a jackfruit tree. By Chapter three, you will be invested. The intrigue gnawing at you to pursue the protagonist's fate. Someone struggling with their identity and fighting the world outside. The past that lures and traps them, and the desire to be free.

[Archana Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This folklore mixes magic realism with battling ancestral traditions to come to terms with one’s own identity. I found this powerful and deeply moving. It’s a novella that I finished in a day. Lovely writing. Highly recommend.

[Arva Bhavnagarwala · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ✨️

A very well written novella. Fluid prose, engrossing narrative. I didn't want it to end.

Half a star less because I thought the ending was a bit rushed, and the font of the print version is too tiny for my old eyes 🫣

[Naga Vydyanathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very honest work that beautifully blends a social topic like gender non-confirmity with fantasy and folklore. Both are handled authentically, neither going overboard, giving the reader an immersive experience.

[Mitra Samal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fine read with rich mystical elements and profound questions of identity.