art by ash collins
A cross-culture clash of the most extreme kind when a Texan Construction company is hired by Indian tycoon, Moti Lal, to build the first Western theme-park in Mumbai. Dallas Jones and his American team must co-ordinate multiple antagonistic nationalities in an unfamiliar land to achieve the demanding deadlines.
Seema, the head-strong local co-ordinator struggles to work with chauvinistic Avinash on the team as mutual attraction and life-style expectations lead to clashes in the work place.
And all the while someone is trying to kill Moti Lal; family, friends and enemies become increasingly difficult to identify as the project nears completion. Can Dallas Jones avoid the flirtatious Mrs Lalita Lal, will Seema be seduced by the smooth talking Anglo-Pakistani architect Sohail and why does Avinash find the 'Kusra' [transvestite] Jeevan so alluring?
Family members plot and plan to take over the ever-burgeoning Lal empire and dark family secrets start to unravel as personal aspirations collide with greed and betrayal. Destitute slumdog orphans, enticing 'Nauch [Dancing]' Girls, menacing 'Goondas [Gangsters]', mysterious terrorists, opportunistic politicians, belligerent bribe-seeking policemen, and the ever-present dangers of another Indian-Pakistan War add up to an explosive climax.
Author's Notes
The idea for this story came when I was watching the dodgy Daniel Craig westerner Cowboys & Aliens. I thought of the generic title they had reworked, Cowboys & Indians, and started thinking about it in a literal way, where Indians meant actual Indians from India. Once that idea came I started to develop that story further about Americans in India and the whole culture clash aspect.Originally Avinash had a much greater role but Dallas Jones was important to the story and when he interacted with Lalita Lal the scenes almost wrote themselves. Lalita was such a strong fun voice to write she demanded more attention. That and mixing in some good old fashioned Bollywood flavours pulled it all together.
The cover idea was developed from the old Lone Ranger pose but using an elephant instead of Silver. My brilliant artist Ash then knocked it out of the park as usual.
