The Rainbow Acres By Simrita Dhir

The Blurb & The Story:

In the spring of 1916, seventeen-year-old Kishan Singh is euphoric in his village Noor Mahal in Punjab, British India as he dreams of going to college, landing a government job and marrying his heartthrob Roop. Summer flies in with promise but ends in disaster when heavy rains flood the fields, wrecking the cotton crop and triggering influenza which leaves behind a trail of dead villagers. Kishan Singh’s dreams are ruthlessly washed away. Devastated, he sets off on a life-threatening voyage across two oceans for a distant and unknown land.

On a cataclysmic day in 1919, Sophia’s idyllic world in Guadalajara, Mexico, falls apart when she becomes a hapless victim to the ravages of the Mexican Revolution. She battles hunger, poverty and near prostitution before embarking on a perilous night journey across the border. 

Will their paths cross in the land of opportunities that is overrun with racial and class barriers? 

The Rainbow Acres is a moving saga of migration, selfless love, fortitude, friendship, and the quest for land and identity, set against the backdrop of old Punjab, early California and revolution-torn Mexico. 

About Book & Author: 

The Rainbow Acres has made it to Amazon Memorable Books of 2018 and was also on Amazon The Very Best Fiction from Winter 2018. Those are rare honors for a debut novel. 

The Author Simrita Dhir grew up in Patiala, Punjab in a family of distinguished academics. A national-level debater, writer and actor in school and college, she is a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Standard Awardee. A recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Academic Excellence in Post Graduate Studies, she received her PhD on Toni Morrison from the Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. An avid reader, some of her favorites are Prem Chand, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, RK Narayan, Ismat Chughtai and Nirmal Verma alongside other literary stalwarts of Indian and World Literature. 

Simrita has contributed to leading national newspapers including The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Tribune. She now lives with her husband and their son in San Diego, California where she studied Advanced Rhetoric at the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, San Diego State University. She lectures on Writing, Diversity and Imagination at the University of California, Art Institute of California, among others. The Rainbow Acres is her debut novel.

The Story: 

The Rainbow Acres starts with Kishan a 17-year-old who lived with his Aunt and Uncle at Noor Mahal in Punjab, British India. Kishan a boy from a small village with big dreams. Having a teen crush on Roop, the most beautiful girl in the village and his childhood friend. Kishan is always reading and studying well so that he could end up working for the British Government. With that, it will be easier for him to marry Roop. So the Story starts with beautiful teen crushing story, from blushing to storytelling, from meeting secretly to going on the other village for celebration, from flirting to dreaming of kissing her. It's the story of Kishan. 

Far away 20 years back at Acapulco in Mexico lived Sophia Morales, an adventure seeker girl with charming nature. Always looking for an opportunity to live life fullest and listening to her family story moving from Spain to Mexico. After the living one more adventure that is life, Sophia found herself passion for chocolate, thus giving her an idea of making the most delicious milk chocolate. 

The Rainbow Acres has 2 stories of two different individuals happening at 2 different times, 20 years apart and finally merge into an exquisite family. 

The Rainbow Acres tells the brave story of the pioneer Punjabi farmers of California who started their journeys from Punjab in the early 1900s, shortly after the California Gold Rush. Undertaking perilous journeys, they sailed across two oceans to reach California with the hope of claiming and farming their piece of this golden land.

Many of these pioneer Punjabi farmers of California married Mexican women, who had migrated to California after having been uprooted by the Mexican revolution. As a result, a fascinating Punjabi-Mexican community sprang up in California. It was a beautiful coming together of two cultures - a truly secular, bi-ethnic set-up that came to exemplify a new and eclectic California.

Life is an adventure and at what new turn life will take us to, we don't have any idea. So how do Kishan and Sophia meet? What happens in their lives?

My Take: 

This book The Rainbow Acres By Simrita Dhir is a book filled with hope, love, friendship, brotherhood, family, and respect. Both the stories differ from each other in every way, and the author Simrita Dhir has done an incredible job in describing every part of it admirably. The culture, traditions, family history, the war ear and struggle of that time, everything is explained and fitted together perfectly in the story. 

I like the way Author Simrita Dhir has written this book and tells us that life is an adventure. The growth of characters from childhood to adulthood, everything is refined and well written. 

Overall, this is a story of proud Sikhs and conscientious Mexican together as a family. So click on the link now and read the most adventurous life of two individuals in The Rainbow Acres by Simrita Dhir: https://amzn.to/2T8TFUD