How many of us are making choices based on what we actually want to do?” Rani asks, “and how many of us are doing it because it’s what’s expected of us? And those are the things that I’m personally grappling with.” If you're breastfeeding, feed just before you go for your run. Running with big heavy boobs is not comfortable!” There are now also several editions of JLF around the world, including London. JLF London was the first JLF outside India and marked its 10th edition here this June ( see link below). Baby Saul (yes that is her real name) is not living her best life at moment. She’s still grieving for her beloved dad, she’s in a job where she’s not appreciated and her love life is non-existent. To add insult to injury the questions she keeps being asked is when she is getting married and start a family. Talk about feeling under pressure. Whilst at her mum’s house she starts to look for her dad’s kambal (blanket) to seek comfort and in her mum’s peti (trunk) she finds love letters written by her Dadaji (grandfather) to someone who is not her Dadima (grandmother). Who was her Dadaji writing to? To find out Baby will have to travel to India on a journey of discovery.

A hardy breed, Indian Runners are not prone to illness or seem to be impacted by either hot or cold weather in a negative manner. When Baby heads off to India to discover more about her family, ironically and unexpectedly, she feels that she doesn’t fit in there either. She feels marked out as ‘different’ because she is an Indian living abroad, whilst discovering that she is equally guilty of having incorrect regressive assumptions about modern day India, as well as ignorance of its past. She starts her journey in the bosom of her family, staying with her aunty and cousins. I loved this part of the book, with Baby’s assumptions about life in modern India being challenged at every corner, and the way that her aunt and cousins immediately enveloped her in love and acceptance.

I adored Baby’s grandmother and their relationship was so beautiful. It really made me lonely for my own nana. Her grandfather’s story is heartbreaking, and I appreciate that both sides of his person are shown, the before and the after, illustrating the effects of his experience. A good way to monitor whether you're overexerting yourself is to use the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale – an RPE of 1 means very easy and 9 to 10 means you’re so out of breath you can’t speak. However with the help of her cousin and Sid, she soon begins to feel more ‘at home’ in India: she opens up to the place and realises how much of her true self she has been keeping hidden. Her journey to the Punjab with Sid in search of her ancestors, reveal more of the country to her, and she realises that the letters as not just a story of family history, but that they are also about India itself. They tell the story of a tragic episode of Indian history about which she knows practically nothing: partition. The balance between the exploration of really serious issues and the comedy, humour and romance in this novel is pitch perfect – everything is beautifully and sensitively handled – and as well as exploring these important themes, and developing a great cast of well-realised characters, Anita Rani brilliantly and vividly creates a sense of place and community within this novel. Whether it is Bradford or the Punjab you experience the sights, sounds and smells.

http://asianculturevulture.com/portfolios/my-family-partition-and-me-india-1947-tv-personality-anita-rani-makes-impassioned-plea-to-listen/ Baby Does A Runner is a brilliant story about Baby, or Simran; a British-born Sikh woman who is single, in her 30s and struggling a bit with not getting the same opportunities in life as her male counterparts at work, and with the loss of her father. If you’re feeling well between weeks four and six, you could try some low-impact exercises, like time on the cross trainer or on an exercise bike, if it feels comfortable. But she is still getting over the loss of her beloved father - and when she discovers letters belonging to her grandfather that suggest there is family history that has never been discussed, she decides it is time to visit India and learn more about her family. It proves to be a life changing trip in many ways. When Baby finds some love letters between her grandfather and someone who is very clearly not Baby's Nana, she needs to know more. She's heads off to India, to find out why her family left, and find out more about the mysterious woman.I love any book with British Asian characters at the helm, so Anita Rani's offering appealed straight away. Baby Saul is fed up with her job and her colleagues. Her love life is permanently casual, she's grieving for her dad, and if her mother and the aunties don't stop asking her when she's going to settle down and start having babies, she might just lose it. The only criticism I have and it's a tiny niggle at that is the romance side of the book. Baby was on a journey to discover herself and her family's past. Did she really need to rely on a man to achieve this? Don't get me wrong I loved Sid but I would have appreciated the story more if it was just her standing by herself at the end of the story. Content and happy. But it's a tiny niggle as I said and doesn't take away from the brilliance of this book. Baby is deeply affected by her discoveries and comes to realise that she is from two places: the place she is physically connected with (Bradford), and the place she is ‘spiritually entwined with’ (India).