Dhaba

When Anaya returns to her childhood home in Punjab after her mother’s passing, she isn’t looking for answers—only distance. But the quiet rhythms of her mother’s old roadside kitchen, and the people who still gather there, begin to stir something she thought she'd buried.

Over slow mornings and half-finished recipes, memories surface like steam from a pot left too long on the stove. A lemon tree. A chipped steel cup. The silence between two people who once knew how to speak. And through it all, the scent of paratha and jam—simple, strange, and suddenly full of meaning.

Paratha & Jam is a tender, cinematic novella about loss, inheritance, and the quiet rituals that bring us back to ourselves. For readers of Banana Yoshimoto, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop, this is a story of homecoming without resolution—only presence.

Where to Buy:

Amazon:

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dhaba-malika-guram/1147212626?ean=2940184366661

About Author:

Malika Guram is a screenwriter and storyteller whose work explores cultural inheritance, memory, and the emotional undercurrents of everyday life.

Dhaba is her first novella—a quiet exploration of grief, homecoming, and the rhythms of ancestral spaces. Though she doesn’t cook, she’s always been fascinated by the way food carries stories, rituals, and identities across generations.

Her writing blends cinematic sensibility with lyrical restraint, often dwelling in silence, subtext, and what goes unsaid.

You can reach her at meshanaguram@gmail.com.

Blog Post: https://soldiersaints.com/blog

ISBN: 9798316221387