India, April 4 -- Many of us easily reach out for a can or glass of Coke, especially amid the scorch of the hot summer sun blazing down our backs. While the cold drink may seem commonplace to us, one may have heard a parent or grandparent speak fondly of the simpler time of campa cola - the off-brand cola-flavoured homegrown fizzy soda drink that was a norm, often still found in candy store that stock up Kismi toffees, Pass Pass mouth freshners, Swad toffees, or sugary sweet candy cigarettes we would pretend to smoke as kids.

This nostalgic sweetness is rife in Tempest On River Silent, as author Sandeep Khanna navigates through five decades that defined India. The shift through a post-colonial nation of the 1970s to a global presence lea...