The Time Machine

by Nikesh Shukla

"We grew up in households where food was important. We grew up in households where the kitchen was the centre of our universes. The main family thoroughfare happened in our kitchens." ‘The Time Machine’ is a new novella about food and grief by award-winning author Nikesh Shukla. It tells of Ashok’s attempts to cook food like mum used to make. If he succeeds, his time machine will have worked and he’ll be transported back to a time when the family home was alive with the sounds of cricket, the smell of food and the presence of his mother. The story is a tender, funny ode to home-cooked Gujarati cooking (‘not tandoori or balti, are you rogan joshing me?’), peppered with family recipes and charmingly outdated wisdom from over-bearing aunties.

43 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 13, 2013

Reviews

[Tali Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella follows Nikesh Shukla as he finds a way to connect with his late mother by learning how to cook, and in particular her recipes. A sweet, emotional and heartwarming novella, The Time Machine brings to light how important cooking can be to bring a family together, with many wonderful memories tied into our senses.

[Ralu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It fell flat for me. I feel the idea of the book deserves 5 stars and all of us can relate to memories through food, but somehow, the mood never got to me.

[Avinash Mamtora · Rating 2 out of 5]

except for the fact that the proceeds of my purchase went to the lung cancer foundation, there wasn't anything commendable about this book. rife with grammar and factual mistakes (most gujarati kitchen words were wrong), this book hinges on the author's attempt, via 3 recipes (one of them non-veg, imagine the horror for a gujarati family!!!), to rekindle smells and tastes of the kitchen his mother used to run at his childhood home. the sentiments are real, the writing could have been much better.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is brilliant, moving, sad,funny. It's only a quid and 25p goes to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Buy it. Have a tissue handy when you read it. http://galleybeggar.co.uk/store/books...