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Back Bitter Sweets Save as PDF
Chapters (41)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Nadim Rub’s Most Magnificent Deception
  4. The Alchemic Conception of
  5. The Puppy Love of Parvez Khan
  6. The Crushed Rose Petals of a
  7. The Relative Cost of Gold
  8. The Beginning of the Double Life
  9. The Triumphant Return of Ricky
  10. Of Sunflowers and Sunny Side Ups
  11. A Glorious Spring Wedding for
  12. The Importance of Not Forgetting to
  13. The Middle-Naming of
  14. The Married Life of Ricky Karim and
  15. The Musical Memories of Sharif Khan
  16. The Balti Ballads of Tooting Broadway
  17. Parvez Khan Mourns the Loss of Love
  18. Shona Khan Discovers Photos
  19. The Octopus in the Garage
  20. The Academic Pursuits of Omar Khan
  21. Between Greek Tragedy and
  22. The Balti Ballads Play Brick Lane
  23. The Trouble with December Evenings
  24. Châteauneuf du Pape in a
  25. Burnt Cookies and Driving Lessons
  26. Becoming Accustomed to a Face
  27. Ricky-Rashid Makes a Damning Discovery
  28. Shona Khan Makes a Damning Discovery
  29. Sharif Khan Meets an Angel in Tennis Shoes
  30. The Romantic Memories of Sharif Khan
  31. Omar Khan Celebrates May Day in Oxford
  32. Mrs Henna Karim Extends a
  33. The Dhaka Tea Party
  34. A Performance, a Bookmark and a
  35. Sharif Khan and the Terrifying Truth
  36. Won’t Let Us Have a Breakdown
  37. Confessions Across a Hospital Bed
  38. The Mother and Child Reunion
  39. Party in the Park
  40. Acknowledgements
  41. AN INTERVIEW

When we began the band, he was at first irritated and then appalled to hear the type of music we were playing -Indie punk rock was not yet invited across the iron curtain of his living room to join his private United Nations. Perhaps he was even a little bit afraid - afraid that his children would succeed where he had failed, that they would not only become accentless English gentlemen, with pale faces that barely hinted at their ethnicity, but that they would become musicians too. When I became more serious about music, at the expense of my schooling, he urged me into the restaurant business instead, and to give up my musical ambitions. Sometimes, I think he might have unconsciously done this so I might have the opportunity to fail where he had proved he could succeed.

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The Balti Ballads of Tooting Broadway

SHARIF WAS FIFTEEN when he decided to start the band. He was already quite handsome, although not in the same way his father was, less swarthy and finer boned. He had puppy-dog eyes that were chocolate-brown and appealing - Shona still insisted that they were his father’s eyes. By his teens he had become conscious of the fact that you couldn’t tell his ethnicity immediately by looking at him, which slightly embarrassed him - he didn’t want people to think he was a wannabe white; he thought ‘coconut Bounty Bar’ was one of the worst insults bandied around his school, worse than Paddy or Paki. To counter any such accusations, he grew his black hair long and straight, defiantly let his teenage bum fluff grow on his chin and adopted an Asian sarf London accent, which he used comfortably to win the respect of his cronies, and which he dropped effortlessly when he loped back home to the gentrified Heaver Estate, his school tie hanging so loosely that it looked like a noose. Sharif was not only handsome, but with his new, vaguely rebellious look and his air of studied insouciance, he was now quite cool.Better than cool, he was street. Girls began to pay attention to him, and he began to notice them back.

He started the band for four reasons, in this order:

I) It would be cool to be the lead singer in a band

2) Girls liked people in bands, especially the lead singers

3) Being in a band would irritate his dad

4) Oh, and he truly believed that Music was to be his Great, All-Fulfilling Destiny